Kanye West Sued by 'Vultures 2' Producer Over Alleged Unpaid Work

**Eric Wilson** (0:08)
Hello, and welcome to The TMZ Podcast Afternoon Edition, I'm Eric Wilson.

**Talia** (0:13)
And I'm Talia, and happy birthday, Eric.

**Eric Wilson** (0:15)
Thank you so much. Today is my birthday.
Oh, wow, applause in the studio. Thank you guys so much. The Big 3-7.

**Talia** (0:22)
I was going to say The Big 2-5, but you beat me to it.

**Eric Wilson** (0:25)
The Big 3-7, it's my birthday, but that's not what we're here to talk about. Leo season, stand up. We're here to discuss several different stories. Some I'm excited about, some we just got to get through.

**Talia** (0:37)
Yeah, for sure.

**Eric Wilson** (0:38)
Speaking of which, Kanye West sued by a producer. Allegedly, he was unpaid a six-figure sum from Vulture 2
Vultures 2

**Talia** (0:50)
Yeah, not cool.

**Eric Wilson** (0:51)
Not cool. I'll tell you. I mean, you gotta pay the people you work for.

**Talia** (0:54)
My roommate and I got really into labor law recently. This is like textbook. You can't do that.

**Eric Wilson** (0:59)
Can't do this. So let's get into what he can't do or should not do, allegedly.
Kanye West is being sued by an anonymous music producer who claims he was never paid for work. The producer filed anonymously as John Doe. That's usually the anonymous name you go with. Nice. He was brought onto the project August 1st, 2024, two days before the album's release.

**Talia** (1:20)
Buzzer beater.

**Eric Wilson** (1:20)
Little bit of red flag there. Huge. To start. He alleges that he created more than 400 vocal generations, created at least 13 custom AI voice models.
We'll leave that up to you guys.

**Talia** (1:34)
All right.

**Eric Wilson** (1:35)
And then reconstructed vocals. And that he also later worked on two released tracks from Kanye's Bully project.

**Talia** (1:44)
Oh wow.

**Eric Wilson** (1:44)
And several unreleased songs. According to Kanye's team, they acknowledged his work in late 2024, discussed updating his streaming credits, and offered him a master buyout.

**Talia** (1:58)
I don't know what that means, but it sounds like not money.

**Eric Wilson** (2:01)
It basically means like we're not going to pay for residuals or anything on the song. We're just going to buy out. We'll give you a little bit here, and then you'll never come around again.

**Talia** (2:08)
No, fight, I say.

**Eric Wilson** (2:10)
And he claims that he never received payment or proper credit. So it's a moot point there.

**Talia** (2:16)
So at least $110,000 for seven unreleased tracks, seven released tracks, 80,000 for Vultures 2 and 30,000 for Bully, and additional damages for the unreleased work. Yeah. I feel like this feels like something. Does he have a contract that we could look at?

**Eric Wilson** (2:32)
Well, in my time here, I've discovered that the bigger you are, the less likely you're going to sign a contract with somebody who is probably low level, probably just starting out, maybe someone you would allegedly like to take advantage of.

**Talia** (2:49)
Allegedly.

**Eric Wilson** (2:50)
And not have to pay them. I've seen that in my days here.

**Talia** (2:53)
Wow.

**Eric Wilson** (2:54)
There's actually-

**Talia** (2:56)
Turning 37 has made you really wise.

**Eric Wilson** (2:59)
Let's just say, how can I say this?
There's a huge documentary that stemmed from this. We'll just say that. So this is what happens here, you know? So no response from Kanye at the time of this podcast, but the guy's looking to get paid. He's asking the court also to order Kanye's companies to at least properly credit him on the streaming platform.

**Talia** (3:32)
I also think, though, real quick, if you lend your voice to become an AI model, I don't know if I can support that. Well, I mean, it doesn't even... Separate problem.

**Eric Wilson** (3:40)
You know, who knows if he used his voice? He could have created AI voices.

**Talia** (3:44)
At least three custom AI voice models. Yeah, all right. If it's his voice...

**Eric Wilson** (3:48)
I mean, either way, I think it's... So we know Kanye's album used AI.

**Talia** (3:54)
What?

**Eric Wilson** (3:55)
Breaking news.
Do we care? Do people care? Is Kanye too good for AI? You would think so, right?

**Talia** (4:01)
You would think. I also thought he was too good to maybe not make comments about the Holocaust, but here we are, moving on. That's fair.

**Eric Wilson** (4:08)
So yeah, Kanye, pay your people, brother. Thank you so much.

**Talia** (4:13)
Happy birthday.

**Eric Wilson** (4:13)
Happy birthday, Kanye. Actually, happy birthday, Barack Obama. Me and Obama have the same birthday.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:18)
Happy birthday, Barack.

**Pat McAfee** (4:19)