A Texas pastor is slamming Kanye West for sampling one of his sermons without his permission.
In a new lawsuit, Bishop David Paul Moten, faith leader at The Joy of the Lord Worship Center in Victoria, is taking aim at Ye’s pockets, claiming that the music mogul illegally used about 70 seconds of his sermon for the record “Come To Life,” which appears on “Donda.” According to Moten, his voice is used for about 20% of the track in the intro and looped throughout. He says that the sampling is yet another example of how the music industry “willfully and egregiously” uses the sound recordings of others without consent.
U.M.G. Recordings, Def Jam Recordings, and G.O.O.D. Music are among the companies named in the complaint. The Bishop is suing for damages, although the exact amount is unknown.
These accusations of illegal sampling are just the latest made against Ye. In 2019, he was sued for wrongly using a viral clip of a little girl praying in his record, “Ultralight Beam.” Another accusation that the Yeezy founder faces is one from rapper and producer Smokepurpp, who claims that Ye owes him upward of $9 million in unpaid songwriting credits for his song “I Love It.”
Kanye West has not publicly responded to the pastor’s accusations or the one made by Smokepurpp, and it is unlikely that he will. The 44-year-old is said to be away from the spotlight, healing following his bitter divorce from Kim Kardashian.
