Kanye West is being sued by a Texas pastor.
Photo: Jerritt Clark. All rights reserved.
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If a rapper shouldn’t be in danger of being sued by the clergy, it’s Kanye West. At least that’s what you think. In fact, the professing Christian is now being sued by a pastor from Texas. However, the reason is not heretical behavior, but simple copyright infringement.
The American magazine “TMZAccording to the report, Kanye West sampled a speech given by Pastor David Paul Moten without his consent. It’s about the song “Come to Life”. According to the indictment, the pastor’s sermon should be heard for a total of 70 seconds in the song, which would account for more than 20 percent of the entire track with a song length of 5:10 minutes. The sermon can be heard prominently in the intro of the song, but individual passages are also repeated in the further course of the track.
The pastor seems to have been overcome by a great contentiousness because his lawsuit is not only aimed at Kanye West. The clergyman is also taking the involved labels Good Music, Def Jam and UMG Recordings to court. According to him, “Come to Life” is just one example of the habit common in the music industry, “willfully and egregiously sample the sound recordings of others without their consent or permission to do so.”
The song “Come to Life” comes from Kanye West’s 2021 album DONDA, on which the rapper not only incorporated many gospel elements, but also repeatedly emphasized his love for God. The rapper has since released DONDA 2, but only on his own Stem Player, which costs around $200.
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