Kanye West sampling Mono No Aware. What are your thoughts?

#1

So in his new album, Kanye West sampled a bit from Kareem Lotfy’s track on Mono No Aware Compilation. Also, he didn’t ask PAN for permission nor he credited Kareem Lotfy, so what do you guys think ?

Thank you

#2

he should pay them and credit kareem end of discussion imo.

#3

Yeah that’s the right way I know, but I’m trying to look the situation from a different perspective. Like what if we confront ourselves and ask, is it really matter to credit someone ? What do we gain from it ? Not to mentioning the obvious answers like materialistic gains and so on. What do the artist gain from being credited on other people’s work ?

#4

recognition of work put in to what’s being sampled. that actually matters imo. you can say otherwise but what do these rich huge artists lose by crediting the artists they’re more or less exploiting, except for a some money. i feel like this conversation is always framed from the point of view of a big established artist and their use of someone much more obscure, like to justify their theft

#5

Overlap and further discussion over in this topic around the use of samples and crediting

#6

I’d like to think sampling as a way of saying that you respect the artist and their work. Also, I think, it means you as an artist influenced me by making the track and now I’m going to create another track by using your track. It’s like a collage. Yes we can say collage work is exploiting or sampling is exploiting, but look at the big picture you influenced an artist or we can go higher, you influenced a human to create.

#7

Yeah I was just reading it to see if there is any proper response from PAN.

#8

I think a lot of artists making sample-based music do it out of love and maybe don’t have the funds to pay for samples, and there should perhaps be a bit of amnesty there. But man like Kanye can afford it. So he should pay.

#9

not all sampling is equal imo. there’s 100% a big difference between someone in a niche scene that PAN belongs in sampling eachother and kanye sampling someone from said scene. the homage/respect thing only goes so far when it’s uncredited and unpaid.

#10

I completely agree with your statement, isn’t it sad that now that industry is stuck with this immoral dilemma that bedroom producers cannot share anything because they actually pay for their samples to be heard or even make a record. It’s like a pay-for-win type video game. Such a shame.

#11

Would you get a bit disappointed if PAN does not sue or demand something from Kanye over this issue ?

#12

not really my business what they choose to do about it, my point is the artist should be credited and compensated from the start. does look like they’re going to do something about it tho

#13

or, you enabled a human of considerable means to be lazy because that seems to be the precedent that’s been set

#14

Good for them, like I said I completely agree with your first reply. I just wanted to look from a different perspective. I still think it’s not necessary to credit nor compensate the artist, but things change when the labels are involved. What would happen if Kareem Lotfy puts the track on Bandcamp and Kanye somehow finds the song and samples it ? Or this, what if Kareem Lotfy doesn’t want the compensation ?

#15

I mean yes you can say that, but what is hardworking anyways ?

#16

it’s been made very clear that kanye, his label or “people” has not been in contact with pan or kareem lofty. so what if he found it on bandcamp? why would that change anything? i don’t get what you want with this devil’s advocate thing or where it’s going, it doesn’t make sense man. oh and it’s not that a label is involved is that it is on of the biggest artists in the world right now straight up stealing someone else’s music and passing it off as their own, because that’s what this kind of “uncredited sampling” is. like this is a contemporary ambient electronic track, not some old soul record.

#17

sorry for being snarky there but i’m sincerely a bit confused

#18

I really don’t have a hardline stance on it. I make music from samples. most of the time the sources are 100% obscured and some of the time it’s really obvious (subjectively). in truth, it’s not that difficult to make something sound nice/uniquely yours.

I was just playing devil’s advocate. in a small way, a positive outcome has already occurred…how many times have we said the name Kareem Lotfy in the last five minutes? surely more times than if Kanye had NOT sampled him…

#19

so he got paid in exposure lmao

#20

Honestly that could be our answer right there lol