{"id":11145,"date":"2026-07-16T19:13:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T19:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/kanye-french-montana-sued-over-sample-of-paparazzi-fight-video-in-song\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T19:13:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T19:13:32","slug":"kanye-french-montana-sued-over-sample-of-paparazzi-fight-video-in-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/kanye-french-montana-sued-over-sample-of-paparazzi-fight-video-in-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Kanye & French Montana Sued Over Sample Of Paparazzi Fight Video In Song"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tYe (the artist formerly known as Kanye West) is facing yet another lawsuit over allegations of unlicensed sampling \u2014 only this time, it\u2019s centered on a video clip of the rapper\u2019s infamous 2013 fight with paparazzi.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a case filed Wednesday (July 15) in Los Angeles federal court, the celebrity news agency Bauer-Griffin claims that Ye, French Montana (Karim Kharbouch) and others used audio from the headline-grabbing incident in \u201cWhere They At,\u201d released in 2024 off French\u2019s Mac & Cheese 5<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe May 2013 video, which also features a pregnant Kim Kardashian, shows West charging at a photographer outside a Los Angeles restaurant and shouting \u201cdon\u2019t take no photos\u201d and a string of profanities: \u201cAll of you m*therf*ckers stop it, man!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe clip appears prominently in the intro to Montana\u2019s song \u2014 a use that the lawsuit calls \u201cblatant and willful\u201d copyright infringement.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGiven Mr. Ye\u2019s history of numerous confrontations with paparazzi, the video was highly newsworthy,\u201d the agency\u2019s lawyers write in legal documents obtained and first reported by Billboard<\/em>. \u201cListeners immediately recognized the audio sample that begins the infringing record as being copied from the video.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYe has been sued over a dozen times for allegedly using unlicensed samples and interpolations in his music, including a high-profile battle with Donna Summer. In May, he lost a jury trial over using an uncleared sample in an early version of the Grammy-winning \u201cHurricane\u201d from Donda<\/em>. He had testified at trial that he\u2019s \u201cvery generous\u201d about giving credit and compensation when it\u2019s due, but that \u201ca lot of people try to take advantage of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Wednesday\u2019s complaint, Bauer-Griffin says the creators of \u201cWhere They At\u201d showed no such respect to its rights in the video of the paparazzi incident, using it despite being well aware that sound recordings must be licensed when any amount is directly sampled into a song.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn the music industry, copyrights are prevalent and well understood,\u201d lawyers for the agency write. \u201cEvery defendant knew that they needed to have but did not have permission to use the audio sample.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReps for both stars did not immediately return requests for comment. The lawsuit also names as defendants producers Dem Jointz (Dwayne Abernathy Jr.) and BoogzDaBeast (Jahmal Gwin), as well Gamma, the label that released the song, and its distribution unit Vydia.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe confrontation at issue in Wednesday\u2019s lawsuit was one of two high-profile scuffles with paparazzi that year for the rapper, who was then still known as Kanye West. Two months later, he clashed with photographer Daniel Ramos outside of LAX, resulting in a civil assault lawsuit that the star eventually settled two years later<\/a> on the eve of trial.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs many celebrities have learned over the years, simply appearing in a photo or video does not give someone any legal rights to it. Ownership of such material is always retained by the creator \u2014 an inconvenient fact that has sparked lawsuits against Jennifer Lopez, Miley Cyrus and Dua Lipa.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s unclear who filmed the May 2013 incident, which happened outside a Beverly Hills restaurant minutes after the star had also been filmed accidentally banging his head<\/a> into a signpost while trying to avoid other photographers. But the rights to the footage have been owned by Bauer-Griffin from the beginning: When TMZ first posted it at the time<\/a>, it came with a watermark crediting the agency.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe infringing record has been widely distributed on various streaming platforms, in flagrant violation of plaintiff\u2019s exclusive rights under copyright laws,\u201d Bauer-Griffin\u2019s attorneys write. \u201cPlaintiff brings these claims to vindicate those rights.\u201d<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West) is facing yet another lawsuit over allegations of unlicensed sampling \u2014 only this time, it\u2019s centered on a video clip […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[835,2855,1627,2856,6038,1307,986,412,1556],"class_list":["post-11145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-fight","tag-french","tag-kanye","tag-montana","tag-paparazzi","tag-sample","tag-song","tag-sued","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}