Kanye West Denies Receiving Profits from ‘Donda’ Stem Player Despite Record Sales

Kanye West’s legal woes are far from over. The Chicago rapper is still embroiled in a legal battle over alleged unauthorized sampling on his latest album, Donda 2. The latest development in the ongoing saga is that Ye has denied profiting from the sales of the Donda 2 Stem Player in court documents, despite reports claiming the device raked in over $2 million in revenue.

According to AllHipHop, Kanye’s new lawyer Peter Hawke submitted documents denying that Ye has received any profits from the sale of Stem Players, stating that “Ye denies that he received any revenue from those sales.” The rapper also admitted to sampling “Move Your Body” on his track “Flowers” but argued that his work constituted fair use.’

“[Kanye] specifically denies that he has received any profits from the sale of Stem Players,” his attorney wrote. “Ye admits that there were sales of Stem Players after February 19, 2022, some of which came with Donda 2 preloaded on them. Ye denies that he received any revenue from those sales.”

“Ye denies that he personally acknowledged in discussions with representatives for Mr. Jefferson and UIMP that ‘Move Your Body’ was sampled in Flowers’ without authorization or payment,” Ye’s lawyer wrote. “Ye further denies that he personally has not ceased distribution of ‘Flowers.’”

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Despite Kanye’s denial of any wrongdoing, Ultra International Music Publishing is seeking $150,000 for each copyright infringed in its lawsuit. The label that released the original track, Trax Records, has also filed a lawsuit against Kanye and Kano Computing over the sample.

Kanye has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice, but Judge Analisa Torres referred the case for mediation.

“To earn the $2.2 million we made on the first day on the stem player the album would have had to stream 500 million times,” Ye flexed in a since-deleted Instagram post. “We did more revenue on stem player, without the album even being out, than we would have done with the album being out on streaming.”

What do you think about Kanye’s legal troubles? Is he justified in his denial of making any profits from the Stem Player, or is he trying to avoid the consequences of his actions? Share your thoughts in the comments below.