Ye (formerly Kanye West) has yet again been sued for rapping over an allegedly unauthorized sample — this time on the Vultures 2 track “530.”
The controversial star has faced more than a dozen copyright claims throughout his career for failing to clear samples. That tally grew with a Thursday (Feb. 12) lawsuit brought by the alternative R&B artist Swsh and U.K.-based indie label Future Bounce against Ye and Ty Dolla $ign, his collaborator on the hit 2024 Vultures 2 album.
Swsh (Olivia Anne Quillin) says their 2018 song “Break the Fall” is sampled without a license on “530.” Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that Swsh’s outro vocals are looped repeatedly beneath Ye’s verses throughout the first two minutes of the track.
“By exploiting Swsh’s creative output without credit or compensation, defendants usurped the commercial and artistic value of their sound recording and underlying musical composition while misrepresenting its authorship to the public,” reads the lawsuit. “This unauthorized use deprived plaintiffs of rightful sales and licensing revenue, diminished the value of their work and interfered with their ability to control how that work is experienced and perceived.”
Swsh alleges they sent demand letters to Ye’s reps about the alleged infringement soon after Vultures 2 was released, but the issue was never resolved. Even after being notified about these problems, the lawsuit claims, Ye re-released “530” on his 2025 album Donda 2, still with no sampling license in place.
“Such willful, knowing and deliberate conduct reflects a conscious decision to misappropriate plaintiffs’ intellectual property and to profit from it,” the lawsuit says.
Thursday’s lawsuit now seeks financial damages for Swsh and Future Bounce in the form of lost royalties (Swsh owns 90% of the “Break the Fall” composition rights and the entire master recording, while the label has an exclusive license to exploit the master). The complaint doesn’t request a specific dollar amount, but it notes that “530” has more than 50 million streams on Spotify alone.
In addition to naming Ye and Ty Dolla $ign (Tyrone Griffin Jr.), the lawsuit also brings federal copyright infringement claims against Ye’s in-house label YZY and the service Label Engine, which, according to Swsh, handled digital distribution for both Vultures 2 and Donda 2.
Reps for Ye, Ty Dolla $ign and Label Engine did not immediately return requests for comment on Thursday.
