Donna Summer’s Estate Sues Kanye West for Unauthorized Use of ‘I Feel Love’

Donna Summer’s estate is using Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign for copyright infringement.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, February 28, in California federal court, alleged that West, 46, and Dolla $ign, 41, illegally used an interpolation of the late singer’s 1977 hit “I Feel Love” on their song “Good (Don’t Die),” according to People. The song is on the duo’s joint new album, Vultures 1, which they released on February 10.

Bruce Sudano, who was married to Summer when she died from cancer in 2012 at age 63, is listed as the plaintiff in the lawsuit.

The estate previously stated that it denied the rappers request to use the track.

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“Kanye West … asked permission to use Donna Summer’s song ‘I Feel Love,’ he was denied,” a statement on Summer’s official Instagram Story read February 10. “He changed the words, had someone re-sing it or used AI but it’s ‘I Feel Love.’”

In the lawsuit, Summer’s estate alleged that “permission was explicitly denied. Despite this denial, Defendants shamelessly used instantly recognizable portions of Summer’s hit song.”

The document added that the artists “arrogantly and unilaterally decided they would simply steal” the song when their request was denied by the estate because they “wanted no association with West’s controversial history.”

The estate wrote in the lawsuit that by February 3, the request was denied in both writing and over the phone two times. The lawsuit is requesting $150,000 for each act of infringement.

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The Summer estate is not alone in complaining about West infringing on music copyrights.

Sharon Osborne and husband Ozzy Osbourne also accused West of illegally using Ozzy’s music.

“@kanyewest ASKED PERMISSION TO SAMPLE A SECTION OF A 1983 LIVE PERFORMANCE OF ‘WAR PIG’ FROM THE US FESTIVAL WITHOUT VOCALS & WAS REFUSED PERMISSION BECAUSE HE IS AN ANTISEMITE AND HAS CAUSED UNTOLD HEARTACHE TO MANY,” Ozzy, 75, wrote via X on February 9 referring to the Black Sabbath song. “HE WENT AHEAD AND USED THE SAMPLE ANYWAY AT HIS ALBUM LISTENING PARTY LAST NIGHT. I WANT NO ASSOCIATION WITH THIS MAN!”

Osbourne initially got the song in question mixed up — he thought West was using Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” when it was really the band’s song “Iron Man.”
While West technically obliged Osbourne’s request, he found a workaround to keep the “Iron Man” sample intact.

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Instead, West used a sample from his own 2010 song “Hell of a Life” from his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which features a version of the guitar riff from “Iron Man.”

Sharon, 71, told Rolling Stone that they do not want West associated with their music.

“We get so many requests for these songs, and when we saw that request, we just said no way,” she said in an interview published on Tuesday.

“The simple thing is, we don’t want to be associated with a hater,” she continued. “To spread hate the way he does, it shouldn’t be allowed. All the excuses — he’s bipolar or whatever — doesn’t change that. It’s like, f–k you, basically.”

This is not the first time the controversial rapper has been accused of copyright infringement.

In December 2023, West came under fire for sampling the Backstreet Boys’ 1997 hit “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” without permission. And in 2022, the company that owns Boogie Down Productions’ 1986 song “South Bronx” sued him for the same reason, though that lawsuit was eventually dropped.