Kanye West testifies at copyright trial: ‘People try to take advantage’

Ye has testified in federal court that he followed the right steps to clear a sample for his chart-topping 2021 album Donda.

The rapper formerly known as Kanye West took the stand on Wednesday in an ongoing Los Angeles trial over an early version of his song Hurricane, Billboard reports.

The song, which featured The Weeknd and Lil Baby, went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Melodic Rap Performance.

Four music producers – DJ Khalil, Sam Barsh, Dan Seeff and Josh Mease – are alleging Ye included an uncleared sample of their instrumental track MSD PT2 in a Hurricane demo played at a Donda pre-release listening party in July 2021.

Ye maintains that the lawsuit is baseless because his team made an earnest effort to clear the sample, and noted he was generally “very generous” with giving credit to collaborators.

He insisted that the four producers intentionally dragged their feet and refused to approve industry-standard splits.

“We went through the normal process to get it taken care of,” shared Ye, wearing a smart grey suit. “I pride myself on giving people what they deserve.”

But he added that creators sometimes try to extract undue money from him, and this trial is one such example.

“I feel like a lot of people try to take advantage of me,” he told the jury. “As I sit in this courtroom today, I just think people are trying to make more than they otherwise would because it’s me.”

The lawsuit is one among more than a dozen copyright cases Ye has faced throughout his career for allegedly using unlicensed samples and interpolations in his music. It’s the first time he’s taken one of these lawsuits to trial.