Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s upcoming album features a song that heavily samples the Backstreet Boys, but Ye and Ty could run into some serious issues.
According to TMZ, the duo hasn’t received clearance from the late ’90s boy band for sampling their anthem “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” for their new song “Everybody.”
Vultures is slated to arrive on Friday (December 15) and “Everybody” is expected to make the album after Ye and Ty played the track for a live audience in Miami at their listening party on Monday night (December 11).
It’s also listed as the album’s opening track on Apple Music’s pre-release tracklist. However, sources close to the situation relayed that Ye never got an okay from Backstreet to use their track.
HipHopDX was unable to determine at the time of writing who owns the sound recording rights to the 1997 Denniz Pop and Max Martin-produced bop, and has reached out to RCA Records for clarification.
Kanye has a history of clearing samples at the last minute. For his 2018 track “4th Dimension” with Kid Cudi, West’s team contacted Louis Prima’s estate “hours before the needle dropped.”
Per Apple Music, Vultures boasts 18 tracks in total. Kanye hit Wynwood in Miami for a listening party where he previewed tracks featuring assists from his daughter North West, Lil Baby, Freddie Gibbs, Quavo, Future, Bad Bunny and Nicki Minaj. Playboi Carti is also confirmed for a guest appearance.
Ye and Ty were also joined onstage by Offset, Lil Durk, Chris Brown and Kodak Black. One of the highlights of the Vultures listening party was when Gibbs appeared to lip-sync his verse on “Back To Me,” leaving the room in awe.
The 41-year-old MC’s manager, Ben “Lambo” Lambert, quote-tweeted a clip and wrote: “Verse of the year.”
“‘Just turned a bird bitch to my ex, like I was Elon’. They can’t fw Gibbs,” one fan wrote, quoting from the verse.
Another added: “Freddie and Ye on a song together is actually crazy. So happy, Freddie got one of my favourite verses from this year no lie.