Ye is facing a new copyright lawsuit over the infamous 2013 video of him yelling “Don’t take pictures” at paparazzi outside a Los Angeles restaurant.
Celebrity photography agency Bauer-Griffin filed a lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday naming Ye, French Montana and several others as defendants.
The agency said the defendants directly copied audio from that viral clash and turned it into a hit record without permission.
The 45-second clip shows Ye, who was still appearing as Kanye West, lunging at the cameraman and shouting a string of expletives.
The video ends with Kim Kardashian walking through a parking lot surrounded by paparazzi. Ball-Griffin owns the copyright, according to Billboard, which first reported the new filing, adding that the footage was widely reported at the time.
The audio serves as the intro to French Montana’s 2024 track “Where They At,” featuring Westside Gunn, from the mixtape Mac & Cheese 5. Producers Dem Jointz and BoogzDaBeast put the sample on the record, and record label Gamma released it through distribution platform Vydia. The lawsuit alleges that all parties involved knew the sample required a permit but used it anyway.
This isn’t the first time Ye has had a falling out over uncleaned music samples. He recently lost a jury trial and was ordered to pay six figures in damages for unlicensed audio used in his Grammy-winning song “Hurricane.” Ball-Griffin’s attorney pointed to that history as proof he accurately understood what the license meant.
Ball-Griffin wants a court order blocking further use of the clip, as well as damages for actual damages and any profits associated with streaming the song. The mixtape reached the top 15 on the Billboard 200 chart and attracted millions of plays on Spotify alone, court documents said. The complaint also names distributor Vydia and accuses Ye and French Montana of doing nothing to stop the infringement despite having the power to do so.
TMZ first published the video in 2013, and reports at the time had added Ball-Griffin’s watermark to the video. Just minutes after the original video was posted, Ye, still trying to evade photographers, accidentally hit a metal sign outside the same restaurant.
This year, Ye signed a publishing deal with Gamma for the album “Bully,” allowing him to do business with the label he’s now suing.
