Portishead's Geoff Barrow Dismisses Ye For Unauthorized Sample on Vultures 2′ Track: 'Not Again'

After a string of release dates that came and went, Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and Ty Dolla Sign's Vultures 2 The album was finally released on Saturday. And, like its predecessor, the second volume of the two MCs has been criticized for allegedly not clearing some samples.

In a tweet from producer/DJ Geoff Barrow, the Portishead member wrote “FFS [for f–ks sake] Not again [shrug emoji]”, along with a screenshot of it Vultures 2 track “Field Trip”. The song appears to be a very prominent sample of the instantly recognizable drum pattern from Portishead's 2008 track “Machine Gun”, although at the time of publication neither Spotify nor Apple Music indicated any production or samples for the song which also featured Don Toliver, Kodak Black and Playboi Carti. and is attributed to the rap duo's common name, ¥$.

At press time, a representative for Barrow confirmed that the tweet was from Barrow, but it was unclear whether the musician or the band planned to take formal legal action over the alleged unlicensed sample. Legal representatives for Ye and Ty (born Tyrone William Griffin Jr.) did not return requests for comment.

In February, Donna Summer's estate filed a copyright lawsuit against West, accusing the rapper/producer of “shamelessly” using Summer's 1977 hit “I Feel Love” without permission on the Vultures 1 song “Good (Don 't Die )” Lawyers for the estate said at the time that West “shamelessly used instantly recognizable parts” of Summer’s song on his track, despite the fact that her estate had already “expressly denied” him authorization to do so. Following the Summer estate's public statements about the song prior to the filing, “Good (Don't Die)” was pulled from streaming platforms and appeared to be pulled from digital versions of the album. at press time it was not yet available on major streaming platforms.

Additionally, after Ozzy Osbourne refused West's request to sample one of his songs Vultures 1 — an Ozzy solo version of Black Sabbath's “War Pigs” recorded at the 1983 USA festival — the metal icon blasted Ye in February after the sample surfaced during a listening party at Chicago's United Center for serially delayed first Vultures album.

“SHE WAS DENIED PERMISSION BECAUSE SHE IS ANTI-SEMITE AND HAS CAUSED MANY UNBEARABLE PAIN,” Osbourne wrote at the time. “GO AHEAD AND USE THE SAMPLE ANYWAY AT THE album LISTENING PARTY LAST NIGHT. I WANT NO ASSOCIATION WITH THIS PERSON!”. Osbourne's comment about Ye was a reference to Ye's barrage of anti-Semitic comments and insults in late 2022 that brought down the once-billion-dollar music and fashion empire and led to pariah status in the music and businesses.

This isn't the first time West has been sued for illegally sampling or interjecting another artist's songs into his tracks. In 2022, he was sued over his song “Life of the Party” which illegally sampled rap group Boogie Down Productions. On another occasion he was cited for using an unspecified excerpt of Marshall Jefferson's 1986 track 'Move Your Body' in the song 'Flowers' and another occasion claimed he allegedly sampled a Texas pastor's sermon on 'Come to Life' .

It's also not the first time Barrow has called out an artist for allegedly sampling his band's song 'Machine Gun' without permission. In 2013, he accused The Weeknd of sampling the track from Portishead's Third album to “Belong to the World” without asking first. “When someone asks to test you and you say no, they should have the respect as a fellow artist not to use it,” Barrow tweeted to Abel Tesfaye at the time.

See the tweet from Barrow below.