Kanye West allegedly samples underground producer TSVI without permission: “We’re at the bottom; he’s at the top with billions in his bank”
“He has an infinite sample pack at his disposal, which he can use as he pleases, without any repercussions.”
Credit: Left: TSVI | Right: Getty/Arnold Jerocki
An underground dance music producer, TSVI — who recently discovered that Kanye West allegedly sampled his music without permission — has criticised the artist for sampling independent artists “without any repercussions”.
The producer’s discovery was originally shared on X on 3 April. This was followed by a now-deleted post to Instagram on Monday, when TSVI, also known as Anunaku and founder of award-nominated record label Nervous Horizon, purported that West sampled his 2016-released track, 12345678. The track in question is West’s 2021-launched Believe What I Say.
Listen to both tracks for comparison below:
“So, as you might have seen, last week I found out that Kanye sampled my track ‘12345678’ that was released on Chevel’s label Enklav back in 2016,” said a now-deleted screenshot posted by TSVI – real name Guglielmo Barzacchini – on X on 8 April.
“It’s been a few days since I discovered this (in a totally random way, searching myself on WhoSampled), and I think it is one of the most surreal things that has happened to me in my music-making career.
“Fuck Kanye though. I’ve seen stories of him stealing samples from other producers in the underground music scene, and it sucks. We producers are at the bottom of the chain; he’s at the top with billions in his bank account, with a team of producers who have complete freedom to sample whatever they want. He has an infinite sample pack at his disposal, which he can use as he pleases, without any repercussions.
“Anyway, I’ll probably never see any money from this, but I appreciate all of your support and kind messages.”
This post was deleted on Tuesday 9 April.
Some words about Kanye sampling my track. pic.twitter.com/GZgGNLY39C
— TSVI (@Tsvisions) April 8, 2024
After some suggested West’s sample was already a sample used by TSVI, the producer took to Twitter to explain how his work was used. The spoken numbers in 12345678 – West sampled “one” and “six” – were a field recording by the producer, while the untouched vocals “work it” were already sampled. See the explainer below:
It’s a combination of two samples.
The part he sampled are the words ‘one’ and ‘six’ – that’s a field recording I made.
The part which I sampled is the word ‘work it’
— TSVI (@Tsvisions) April 3, 2024
MusicTech reached out to TSVI for comment. He said, “The minimum that I’d like to gain from this situation is at least a credit on the song.”
So far, there has been no response from Kanye West or his team.
Be sure to check out TSVI’s music on Bandcamp.
9 April 2024: This article has been updated to reflect TSVI’s social media post being deleted.
