Kanye West Catches Big Break In Boogie Down Productions Lawsuit

Kanye West has reached a settlement in a copyright lawsuit regarding his use of an uncleared sample from the catalog of Boogie Down Productions in his song, “Life of the Party.” Both sides will pay their own legal bills, but in announcing the settlement, no further details were made public. Phase One Network, which owns Boogie Down’s copyrights, originally filed the lawsuit back in 2022, alleging Ye used the 1986 song “South Bronx.”

“The communications confirmed that ‘South Bronx’ had been incorporated into the infringing track even though West had yet to obtain such license,” Phase One’s lawyers wrote. “Despite the fact that final clearance for use of ‘South Bronx’ in the infringing track was never authorized, the infringing track was nevertheless reproduced, sold, distributed, publicly performed and exploited.”

West’s team argued that KRS-One previously promised other artists that they “will not get sued” for sampling Boogie Down’s catalog. He apparently made the comments during the 2006 documentary, The Art of 16 Bars. KRS-One said: “I give to all MCs my entire catalog.” Phase One wasn’t moved by the argument, instead saying it was irrelevant as Boogie Down didn’t own their own recordings. “Movants cite to no law to support such a theory. KRS-One also could not have placed the Work in the public domain as he did not own it,” they wrote.

Despite settling with West and the Yeezy brand, Phase One will still continue to take legal action against the company behind the Stem Player platform West used to release Donda. West is still facing numerous lawsuits regarding uncleared samples in his music. Be on the lookout for further updates on Kanye West and those legal cases on HotNewHipHop.