Kanye West has reached a copyright settlement with a German-Canadian singer whose music was sampled on the unreleased Vultures track “Gun to My Head.”
According to court documents, Ye and Alice Merton filed a notice of settlement on November 6 regarding the clearance of a sample from Merton’s 2022 song “Blindside.” The filing confirmed that an agreement had been reached, with both sides “anticipated filing a stipulation to dismiss the action after satisfaction of the terms of settlement.”
On Thursday (November 12), U.S. District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha dismissed the case without prejudice, while noting that it could be reopened within 90 days if the settlement terms were not fulfilled. The details of the agreement have not been made public.
Merton filed the lawsuit last March alongside two German music publishers, Merton & Grauwinkel GmbH and Paper Plane Publishing GmbH, naming West and his Yeezy Record Label as defendants.
According to the lawsuit, Ye’s sample clearance company first contacted them on February 15, 2024, but Merton, who is a direct descendant of Holocaust survivors, rejected the request for sample clearance weeks later. The track, featuring Kid Cudi and Ty Dolla Sign, was eventually included on the digital deluxe edition of Vultures 2, which was briefly available for purchase that year.
The lawsuit alleged that “Gun to My Head” incorporated a substantial portion of the bassline melody from “Blindside,” along with a vocal recording of Merton delivering the song’s opening line: “I sat down with a gun to my head.“
According to Rolling Stone Australia, Merton’s complaint claimed that fans began targeting her after the track surfaced, sending her “death threats,” while Ye “did nothing to stop the abuse.”
Ye’s legal team countered that Merton had insufficient evidence to support her copyright claim, pointing out that the song had never been made available on streaming platforms. They also filed a motion to strike the Holocaust and antisemitism allegations. However, according to Billboard, Judge Aenlle-Rocha rejected the request on October 8.
Kanye West has faced numerous sampling disputes over the years, with more than a dozen lawsuits accusing him of using samples and interpolations without proper authorization. He has settled most of those cases. One notable dispute involved the Donna Summer estate, which accused him of sampling her 1977 hit “I Feel Love” on “Good (Don’t Die).”
Earlier this month, producers Jaraed Deal and Marlon Barrow filed a separate lawsuit against Ye and Ty Dolla Sign over an unreleased 2018 track that was sampled on Vultures.
