Money Grubbing ‘Pastor’ Sues Kanye West for Sampling Part of his Sermon on New Album
In what is little more than shameful, wolfish, mammon-loving behavior, Bishop David Paul Moten of the Joy of the Lord Worship Center, an Apostolic, Pentecostal Holiness Church in Texas, has filed a lawsuit against Kanye West, G.O.O.D Music, Def Jam Recordings and UMG Recordings, on account of West sampling a small segment from one of his sermons in the song “Come to Life” form his recent album DONDA.
The sampling segments can be seen here, in bold.
The lawsuit reads:
“Come to Life” is approximately five minutes and ten seconds (5:10) in length. Approximately one minute and ten seconds (1:10) of this sound recording is sampled directly from Plaintiff’s sermon and appears to run on a loop underscoring the pre-chorus and chorus throughout the song in question. Consequently, twenty percent (20%) of the entire sound recording “Come to Life” is comprised of unauthorized, unlicensed samples of the Sermon
The so-called ‘Bishop’ Moten wants to have a trial by jury, alleging that Kanye’s actions have caused him “substantial damages.” and that “the conduct of Defendants was wanton, reckless, and/or malicious to Plaintiff so as to allow the imposition of punitive damages under applicable law.”
As to what damages these are, he does not say, only that he wants “disgorgement of profits, compensatory, consequential, incidental, and punitive damages in an amount to be determined by the trier of fact in this case, plus statutory fines, costs, interest and expenses.”
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