The album “Vultures 1” by Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign has been removed from Apple Music following a complaint from Donna Summer’s estate.
FUGA, the music distribution service, released a statement on Thursday expressing disapproval of the album’s release and announced efforts to withdraw the project from streaming platforms.
“A spokesperson for FUGA stated, “Late last year, we were approached with the opportunity to release ‘Vultures 1.’ Operating within our normal business practices, we chose not to proceed. However, on Friday, February 9, 2024, a long-time client of FUGA uploaded ‘Vultures 1’ to our platform through automated processes, breaching our service agreement. As a result, we are coordinating with our digital service provider partners and the client to remove ‘Vultures 1’ from our systems.”
This distribution issue marks another complication in the rollout of the “Vultures” album since its debut last Saturday. On Wednesday, the song “Good (Don’t Die),” which samples Donna Summer’s 1977 hit “I Feel Love,” was taken down from Spotify. Although it is still listed in the album’s tracklist, the song cannot be played on Spotify, but remains available on Apple Music, Tidal, and YouTube.
The issue escalated when Donna Summer’s estate claimed, “Kanye West sought permission to use Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ and was denied. Despite changing the lyrics and either having it re-sung or using AI, the essence of ‘I Feel Love’ was retained, leading to copyright infringement allegations.”
Moreover, Ozzy Osbourne accused Kanye West of antisemitism following an early version of the song “Carnival,” which featured a live rendition of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man.” West responded by modifying the track, substituting “Iron Man” with an interpolation of “Hell of a Life” from his album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” in the final version of the song.
