During his testimony in the copyright infringement trial on Wednesday, the artist formerly known as Kanye West seized a moment to inject some humor, as reported by Billboard. His attorney asked him if he had won a Grammy for "Brothers in Paris," a court-friendly reference to "N****s in Paris." This question caused Ye to break away from his "calm and expressionless" demeanor on the stand and respond with, "What's the real name?" The laughter that ensued from the courtroom gallery, including Ye himself, lightened the mood of the tense proceedings.
Ye is being sued by four producers — DJ Khalil, Sam Barsh, John Mease, and Dan Seeff — who allege that he used an uncleared sample from the song "MSD PT2" on the demo for "Hurricane," which was played during the Kanye West Presents The Donda Album Release event at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in 2021.
In response to this allegation, Ye said that they had gone through the normal process to clear the sample but that the four producers intentionally stalled and spurned industry-standard split approval. "I pride myself on giving people what they deserve," he asserted, adding, "I feel like a lot of people try to take advantage of me."
Ye has dealt with over a dozen copyright infringement lawsuits over the course of his career. A judge dismissed most of the four producers' initial lawsuit through the company Artist Revenue Advocates in February on the grounds that they only owned the master recording rights to "MSD PT2." As a result, they could not receive royalties from the final versions of "Hurricane" and "Moon." The four producers have since narrowed the scope of their suit, seeking a portion of the money made from the album listening event.
