Kanye West believes he’s innocent in the pending, “Kids See Ghosts” copyright lawsuit and he is requesting that the case be dismissed.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, West denies that he intentionally ripped off actor and performer Ronald Oslin Bobb-Semple for the song, “Freee (Ghost Town Pt. 2),” which is a track off his 2018 joint album with Kid Cudi.
Back in March, Bobb-Semple filed a lawsuit against Kanye, Kid Cudi, Ty Dolla $ign, who was featured on the song, along with Def Jam and Universal for copyright infringement. He claims that the sample used on Kids See Ghosts was off his 2002 recording entitled, “The Spirit of Marcus Garvey (Garvey speaks to an all-Black audience),” and it exploited his actual voice, words, and performance.
However, apparently, Ye is fully aware that he didn’t get permission to use Bobb-Semple’s unauthorized vocals on the introduction of “Freee (Ghost Town Pt. 2).” West, Kid Cudi and Ty Dollar $ign all believe that they didn’t need permission because his work falls under fair use, and for that reason, the case should be thrown out.
Per Billboard, “Fair use is generally defined as the right to copy a portion of a copyrighted work without permission if it is for a limited purpose, such as educational use or to comment upon or parody the work being sampled.” Although West only used Bobb-Semple’s vocals for fifteen seconds, it is up to a court to decide his fate.
Outlined in the lawsuit, Bobb-Semple is seeking damages and a percentage of royalties from the song’s past and future success, as well as production credit on the song.
Kids See Ghosts debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 charts last summer.
