Ye takes a significant hit as Kanye West removes a sample
The opening track of ye had a crucial sample removed due to copyright issues
On November 7, some users on the KanyeToThe subreddit noted a significant tweak made to Kanye West’s latest album, ye. Despite Kanye’s consistently frustrating media presence lately, this piece of news presents a fascinating question about sample culture and the way that music streaming has changed the game.
On November 8, Kanye West’s sound engineer, Adam Wolpert confirmed that the sample from Kareem Lotfy’s track Fr3sh had been removed from the opening track of ye due to a copyright clearance issue. He also added that the entire album had received a ‘clean up’.
Below I have inserted three videos, the first is the original I Thought About Killing You track released by Kanye on the 1st of June 2018:
This second video is the version updated in November 2018. Pay particular attention to the changes made at 3:08:
This is the track that was originally sampled in the first video but removed in the second:
This beautiful sample makes a noticeable difference once removed and we’re sad to see it go. Give the full Kareem Lotfy album a listen here.
While it may seem like there are plenty of better things to worry about this weekend than a few minor tweaks to Kanye West’s latest album it’s still a very important topic to consider. As with the post-release changes made to The Life of Pablo, Kanye West has capitalised on the malleable nature of digital albums. Prior to streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify, albums were most often pressed to disc or vinyl, solidifying the sound for a majority of users. Now, we’ve entered an age where songs can be easily manipulated, removed, renamed and added to an album. This change follows the devolution of the album format with artists like Vince Staples releasing sets of tracks without clarifying whether they are albums, mixtapes or EP’s.
For the better or worse, it’s interesting to see the effect that streaming services have had on the music they host. Let’s hope the rest of the album stays in tact for now.
