Singer with Holocaust ties sues Kanye West as fans allegedly sent threats over stolen sample

Kanye West is facing fresh legal trouble after a German singer, Alice Merton, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against him — and the accusations go far beyond mere music theft.

Merton, alongside two German companies, MERTON & GRAUWINKEL GMBH and PAPER PLANE PUBLISHING GMBH, lodged a legal complaint on Tuesday. They allege that West used an unauthorised sample of Merton’s 2022 track Blindside in his song Gun to My Head, which he performed publicly during a Vultures event in Miami in December 2023.

According to the court documents, the plaintiffs claim the rapper “willfully engaged” in copyright violation. They assert that Gun to My Head contains a direct, unauthorised sample of Blindside and that this use has caused substantial damage, particularly given their ownership of both the publishing and writers’ shares of the original composition.

The lawsuit doesn’t stop at the musical infringement. It also recounts the fallout after Merton allegedly refused to allow her song to be used. When pressed for a reason, the plaintiffs responded that “the artist’s values are contrary to our values.”

Following this decision, the song was reportedly removed from West’s album released in August 2024. However, the reaction from some of his followers was swift and frightening. According to the legal filing, Merton — who is of Jewish descent and has close familial ties to Holocaust survivors — began receiving death threats and abuse online for refusing to “clear the sample.”

Merton resides in Germany and feels a deep personal connection to her heritage and the trauma of the Holocaust, the lawsuit states. That personal history, she says, made West’s alleged actions and the response from his fans all the more distressing.

In August 2024, music rights giant BMG sent a formal cease and desist letter to West, demanding that he “cease, desist and refrain from any further violation” of the copyright. The filing claims West never responded.

What followed was a chilling escalation. The lawsuit claims West allowed his fan base to “intimidate and harass” Merton online. Despite being informed that permission had been denied, West allegedly took no action to stop the abuse or acknowledge the rejection.

The plaintiffs are now seeking injunctive relief and damages for copyright infringement and what they describe as unfair competition.

The backdrop to all this is West’s controversial history of public statements. In recent years, he’s faced mounting backlash for a series of anti-Semitic rants on social media. These remarks led to his removal from major partnerships with Adidas, Gap, and Balenciaga, as well as being dropped by his talent agency.

This latest legal battle casts an even darker shadow over West’s embattled reputation — bringing to light not only claims of artistic theft but also accusations of indifference in the face of harassment and threats tied to Holocaust trauma.

Whether the courts will side with Merton and her co-plaintiffs remains to be seen, but the lawsuit has already added a deeply unsettling chapter to Kanye West’s ongoing spiral.