Amidst his troubles with his estranged wife Kim Kardashian, Kanye West is facing another legal battle. Variety reported that West’s track “Power,” which was released in 2010, has sparked a lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) stemming from its sample of King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man.” The publication reported that Declan Colgan Music Ltd (DCM), which owns the mechanical rights to King Crimson’s song, is claiming that they have been underpaid when it comes to streaming royalties from the rapper’s track, which is featured on his fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.ย
When West originally sampled “21st Century Schizoid Man” and uploaded “Power” to YouTube, he did so without obtaining a license for the track. DCM and UMG were subsequently able to reach a deal in which West could retain the sample, but King Crimson would be entitled to a 5.3% royalty on the song. Even though the two parties were able to reach a deal at the time, DCM has since claimed that they have been underpaid when it comes to the song’s royalties.ย
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They claim in their lawsuit, which was filed in the United Kingdom High Court in March, that UMG “has failed, and continues to fail, to comply with its royalty accounting obligations in respect of one mode of exploitation, namely the making available of the Power [r]ecording to consumers through so-called ‘streaming’ services.” Now, DCM is asking that they receive all past due royalty payments along with interest. In addition to receiving the money that they feel they are entitled to, DCM wants the court to declare the correct basis upon which they should decide how much each party receives in streaming royalties. Variety noted that representatives for UMG did not respond by the time of the article’s publication. They also reached out to attorneys for DCM, but they declined to comment.ย
Of course, this isn’t the only matter West has been dealing with as of late. In addition to being in the midst of divorce proceedings with Kardashian, he made a major statement recently by announcing that he would be dropping out of Coachella a little over a week before he was set to perform. As a result of his decision to bow out of Coachella, he reportedly missed out on an $8 million payment that he would have received for performing sets over the two weekends at the festival.ย
