Kanye West’s antisemitic rhetoric has once again placed him in controversy. The rapper is facing a lawsuit from a German vocalist for purported copyright infringement, attributed to his supposed support of Nazism.
Musician Alice Merton initiated a complaint on Tuesday in U.S. federal court, alleging that Kanye utilized a “unauthorized sample” of her song “Blindside” in his track “Gun to My Head,” which also includes contributions from Ty Dolla $ign and Kid Cudi.
Merton asserts in the lawsuit that she composed and recorded “Blindside” in 2022 and only discovered that Kanye sampled it upon hearing his track “Gun to My Head” off the “Vultures” album in December 2023.
In February 2024, two months later, Merton states that Kanye sought permission to utilize her composition via BMG Rights Management, but she declined the request. Merton states that BMG subsequently emailed her to inquire about her denial of Ye’s request, to which she replied that “the artist’s values are incongruent with our values.”
Merton expressed special alarm with Ye’s openly made anti-Semitic and racist statements, which persist in being disseminated.
Ye has been exceedingly public, particularly recently, in expressing his love for Hitler and the Nazis, thereby alienating the majority of his friends in Hollywood.
Merton states that she is a German resident with significant connections to the Holocaust via “Jewish family members who endured its atrocities.” Merton states that she has been inundated with threats from Ye’s fans for denying permission to sample her song.
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