Donna Summer Estate’s Big Win Against Kanye West

The Donna Summer estate scored a big win against Kanye West this week related to Vultures 1, his new album with Ty Dolla $ign.

The track "Good (Don't Die)" off of Vultures 1 featured an unauthorized sample of Summer's song "I Feel Love." Per Billboard, the backlash to the unauthorized sample led to the song being removed from Spotify four days after it hit the streaming service. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone reports the entire Vultures 1 album has since been removed from Apple Music. The removal is due to ongoing issues with the album's distributor.

As previously reported, Summer's estate shared a statement via an Instagram Story saying West and $ign sampled "I Feel Love" without permission. The statement read, "Kanye West… asked permission to use Donna Summer’s song I Feel Love, he was denied… he changed the words, had someone re sing it or used AI but it’s I Feel Love… copyright infringement!!!"

Summer was not the only artist to cry foul about being sampled without permission by West and $ign. Ozzy Osbourne issued a statement about an unauthorized sample. West and $ign sampled a live recording of Ozzy performing the Black Sabbath classic "Iron Man." The sample was featured on the track "Carnival." The live recording is from Osbourne's performance of the song at the 1983 US Festival.

On Feb. 9, The Prince of Darkness took to social media and slammed the unauthorized use of the recording and West, himself. Ozzy wrote, "Kanye West asked permission to sample a section of a 1983 live performance of 'Iron Man' from the US Festival without vocals and was refused permission because he is an antisemite and has caused untold heartache to many."

He continued, "He went ahead and used the sample anyway at his album listening party last night. I want no association with this man!"

By Feb. 13, West had actually removed the unauthorized sample from "Carnival."

From May 2011 to February 2012, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame featured an exhibit called "Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power." From September 2012 to August 2014, the exhibit traveled around to various museums in the United States. It made its final stop at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich. While at that museum, I was given a private tour of the collection of over 70 different performers. These performers ranged from Janis Joplin and Tina Turner to Chrissie Hynde and Stevie Nicks.

The exhibit's artifacts dated back to the 1920s and traveled through to the present day. My tour guide made sure to point out that one "unusual" woman was responsible for the exhibit’s existence. On a visit to the Rock Hall, Cyndi Lauper took a tour of the museum, and she noticed that something was missing. "She very simply said, ‘Where the women at?!," said my tour guide, and that was the impetus for that exhibit.

Frankly, the same question can be posed about the Rock Hall inductees in general.

Rock Hall's chairman John Sykes has made a point in a number of interviews to point out how the Rock Hall needs to evolve. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Sykes said, "...it’s time to take the Hall to 2.0. That means a more diverse board, that means more women, people of color, people who reflect the kind of music that’s now being inducted. We have to look and feel like the artists that come into our Hall. That’s just the natural transition."

Eventually, we’d like to see the ten women artists in the gallery below inducted. They all more than deserve it, and there are plenty of others that still do. Truth be told, this list could be even longer than just ten. Howver, we'll save our extended rambling on this matter for another day.