Kanye West (Ye) is facing a copyright lawsuit from German singer Alice Merton, who alleges he used a sample of her 2022 song Blindside in his track Gun to My Head without permission.

Merton had explicitly denied West clearance, citing his antisemitic statements and refusing to be associated with him.

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Filed Monday in federal court, the lawsuit claims that Gun to My Head, a collaboration with Ty Dolla $ign and Kid Cudi, features Merton’s vocals singing the line “I sat down with a gun to my head” and loops a melody from Blindside throughout the track. Merton says she first discovered the unauthorised use when West performed the song live at a listening event in December 2023.

According to the lawsuit [via Rolling Stone], West’s team only reached out months later to request clearance – after the song had already been performed. Merton and her label refused, stating that West’s “values are contrary to our values” due to his publicly made “antisemitic, racist remarks”.

Merton, who is of Jewish descent and has family members who survived the Holocaust, says she feels “shocked and humiliated” by the unauthorised use of her work.

Even though Gun to My Head was not included on West’s 2024 album Vultures 1, it was later released as a bonus track on the digital deluxe edition of Vultures 2. Merton also claims that she received “death threats and abuse” from West’s “outraged” fans for not clearing the sample when Gun to My Head did not appear on the initial tracklist for Vultures 2.

“Although defendant’s use of plaintiff’s song could potentially bring in significant revenue, [she] was unwilling to compromise her personal beliefs and wanted not to be associated with Ye in any manner,” the suit adds.

This lawsuit is the latest in a string of legal woes West has faced regarding unauthorised sampling. Last year, the estate of Donna Summer sued West for using an unauthorised interpolation of her 1977 hit I Feel Love, in his song Good (Don’t Die), saying they “wanted no association with West’s controversial history.”

Ozzy Osbourne, too, blocked West from sampling a live version of Black Sabbat’s Iron Man for the Vultures 1 album, citing West’s antisemitic remarks as the reason for the refusal.

Last week, West surprised fans by dropping his new album Bully via X. The record has come under scrutiny for its seemingly liberal use of (possibly uncleared) samples as well, with slowed-down, reworked, or straight-up copied versions of songs like the Carpenters’ Close to You, the Supremes’ You Can’t Hurry Love,and Can’s 1972 classic Vitamin C.

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