The artist formerly known as Kanye West found a moment to inject some humor while testifying in court in his copyright infringement trial on Wednesday.
According to Billboard, Ye was asked by his attorney if he won a Grammy for “Brothers in Paris,” a court-friendly reference to “N****s in Paris.” The question caused him to break away from his “calm and expressionless” demeanor while on the stand, and respond, “What’s the real name?”
The courtroom gallery, including Ye, reportedly broke out into laughter.
Ye is being sued by four producers — DJ Khalil, Sam Barsh, John Mease and Dan Seeff — alleging he used an uncleared sample off 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.
“We went through the normal process to get it taken care of,” Ye said in regards of clearing the sample, maintaining 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 narrowed the scope of their suit, seeking a portion of the money made off the album listening event.
