Electronic musician claims the rapper’s team told him ‘it’s not yours, it’s ours,’ regarding elements of his 2001 track which were used for West’s song Blame Game.
Aphex Twin has accused Kanye West of trying to plagiarize one of his songs for use on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The rapper and his reps allegedly “tried to get away with not paying” for Aphex’s track Avril 14th, which forms the musical backbone of West’s song Blame Game.
“[Kanye] tried to fucking rip me off and claim that he’d written it, and they tried to get away with not paying,” Aphex Twin’s Richard D James claimed in a new interview with Pitchfork. Although James insists he was “really helpful” following West’s enquiries, offering to send a polished version of the Avril 14th sample, “re-played” at a different speed, the MC’s camp was reportedly nothing but rude. He claims: “They totally didn’t even say ‘hello’ or ‘thanks’, they just replied with, ‘It’s not yours, it’s ours, and we’re not even asking you any more.’”
Aphex Twin’s Avril 14th is a plaintive keyboard instrumental which first appeared on 2001’s Drukqs. Used on West’s Blame Game, the sample is un-missable: a looped piano figure under West and John Legend’s verses. Then again, it may not technically be a sample: James admitted that he doesn’t know “what it ended up being in the end”, and instead of using the original recording, West’s collaborators may have re-recorded the piano part. The liner notes for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy do however state that Blame Game “contains elements of Avril 14 by Richard James”, so there is an acknowledgement and therefore a possibility that West did comply and compensate James. The Guardian have contacted Kanye West’s team but a spokesperson has yet to respond to requests regarding this recent claim.
This isn’t the first time West has been accused of an improper approach to sampling. Over the past ten years, numerous musicians have tried to sue him over claims he used their music without permission, including parties representing Vincent Peters, Syl Johnson, DMystro, Eddie Bo and Thunder & Lightning. In some instances, West has prevailed in these lawsuits – such as in the case of Peters, while Syl Johnson’s case was settled out of court.
Elsewhere in Pitchfork’s Aphex Twin interview, James said that he has “thousands” of unreleased records like Caustic Window, and the upcoming Syro is only the “most accessible” of his long-gestating studio LPs. In a separate talk with Fader, James promised that the new full-length will not be his last: he is apparently “kicked into gear” for new releases.
