Donna Summer’s Estate Sues Ye for Sampling ‘I Feel Love’

When Ye and Ty Dolla Sign asked last month for permission to sample Donna Summer’s 1977 song “I Feel Love,” the disco singer’s estate firmly told them no. Yet when their joint LP, “Vultures 1,” was released weeks ago, a song with strong similarities to Summer’s famous tune was there on the track list.

A copyright infringement lawsuit detailing that timeline was filed against Ye, the rapper once known as Kanye West, and Ty Dolla Sign on Tuesday by Summer’s husband and executor, Bruce Sudano. Summer, known as the “Queen of Disco,” had three consecutive double albums reach No. 1 in the late 1970s and died of cancer in 2012.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, said that Summer’s estate “wanted no association with West’s controversial history.”

Ye, once one of the biggest music stars on the planet, lost professional associations with the Creative Artists Agency and Adidas in 2022 after he threatened in an online post to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” among other antisemitic statements. He has apologized in a Hebrew-language social media post.