Between selling Nazi T-shirts, social media attacks on Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and Playboi Carti, and a general commitment to burning bridges, Kanye West has still found time to release new music.

In a move as chaotic as his recent online antics, West surprised fans early Wednesday (19 March) by leaking his own album, Bully, via X. The release came alongside a 30-minute wrestling-themed short film, directed by famed music video director Hype Williams and starring Ye’s son, Saint West.

Despite the unorthodox rollout, Bully quickly became a hot topic – not just for its content but for the murky legal waters surrounding its use of samples.

• READ MORE: Kanye West’s Yeezy online store has been taken down after it briefly sold Nazi T-shirts 

Musically, Bully – which includes previously teased cuts like Preacher Man, Beauty and the Beast, and Highs and Lows – appears to follow Ye’s recent trend of playing fast and loose with copyright law.

Among the most glaring inclusions are a straight-up cover of Can’s 1972 song Vitamin C on the second half of the track Take My Last Breath Away and interpolations of classics like Close to You by Burt Bacharach and Hal David (famously performed by The Carpenters) and You Can’t Hurry Love by the Supremes. His collaborator-turned-rival Playboi Carti also appears on the track Melrose despite their recent public feud.

Other potential sample sources include Cortex’s Huit octobre 1971, Poncho Sanchez’s Bésame Mamá, and Pomme’s Soleil Soleil. Notably, Pomme has previously denied Ye permission to use her music. Back in January, the French singer-songwriter publicly addressed an unreleased track by Ye that sampled her 2019 song Soleil Soleil without her consent after a video snippet of the rapper – presumably from one of his Bully sessions – surfaced online.

New Ye snippet surfaced probably for Bully pic.twitter.com/6xYUYhT3Mg

— VZN (@vznfeed) January 4, 2025

Pomme released a statement on Instagram at the time, stating, “I have never given my consent for the use of this sample for reasons that seem obvious to me, being in deep disagreement with the political positions of this artist that I have nevertheless admired in the past.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Pomme (@pommeofficial)

Ye’s history with uncleared samples is well-documented. His 2018 track Lift Yourself, for instance, contained two uncleared samples, including one from Trax Records, which prompted re-negotiations for ownership of the track. And last April, underground producer TSVI accused Ye of sampling his music without permission on the latter’s 2021 album Donda. He also criticised the rapper for repeatedly sampling independent artists “without any repercussions”.

“I’ve seen stories of him stealing samples from other producers in the underground music scene, and it sucks,” TSVI said in a now-deleted post on X. “We producers are at the bottom of the chain; he’s at the top with billions in his bank account, with a team of producers who have complete freedom to sample whatever they want. He has an infinite sample pack at his disposal, which he can use as he pleases, without any repercussions.”

Adding to the confusion, Ye himself has claimed that “half the vocals” on Bully are generated using AI, which certainly raises questions about artists’ credits and legal liability.

Complicating matters even more is the way Bully was distributed. It isn’t an official album on streaming platforms like Spotify or Apple Music, which have established copyright policies. Instead, it was shared through X and a file-sharing app — platforms that exist in even murkier legal territory.

The post Kanye West drops surprise Bully album – but did he clear the samples? appeared first on MusicTech.