Kanye West’s King Crimson Sample in ‘Power’ Sparks Lawsuit Against Universal Music

Kanye West has always worked to get the best product and worries about the business side later. He’s digging through crates to find peculiar samples listeners won’t expect and that was the case with 2010’s “Power,” which employs a sample from British 60’s rock band King Crimson.

Over a decade later, Declan Colgan Music Ltd, who owns the rights to King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man,” reportedly filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group claiming they’ve been severely underpaid regarding their 2010 agreement over West’s sampling.

According to Variety, after DCM figured out Kanye’s copyright infringement using the sample on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy‘s “Power,” the company contacted UMG and came to an agreement a couple of months later that they would receive “a 5.33 percent royalty on each copy of ‘Power.’”

Basically, DCM was to be paid royalties under the same language Kanye West does from Universal, but that figure has since changed and been tougher to figure out with the industry switching over to streaming services rather than the physical CDs relied on to pay sums in 2010.

Declan Colgan Music filed the lawsuit in March with the United Kingdom’s High Court and is seeking back payment on their losses plus interest on top.

Kanye’s music is no stranger to lawsuits. He was previously sued in February 2019 over the use of the intro on The Life of Pablo‘s “Ultralight Beam.”