A California federal court dismissed most of the claims in a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against Kanye West. The court reasoned that an average listener would not recognize the saying “get down” because of the short length of the samples.
While it is well known that West’s big hit “Gold Digger” is buildt around “I Got a Woman” by Ray Charles, the lawsuit claimed it also contains samples of another song written by David Pryor and Thunder & Lightening. Last year two children of Pryor filed a copyright infringement suit alleging West used “get down” chants by their father from Thunder & Lightening’s 1974 song “Bumpin’ Bus Stop.”