Jay-Z & Kanye West: Is There Copyright Infringement With ‘The Throne’?

Jay-Z and Kanye West might currently be perched nicely on the charts, but their Watch The Throne LP could have the two Hip Hop Cash Kings sitting with a royal pain in the rear, to boot. Concrete Loop caught wind yesterday of a blog posting by publisher Numero Uno Group that apparently cited Jay and ‘Ye for copyright infringement in connection with Throne track “The Joy.” We say “apparently,” because the Numero Ono post has since been removed. According to Concrete Loop’s writeup, Syl Johnson’s 1967 track “Different Strokes” is sampled in Hova and Yeezy’s “The Joy,” though the usage was never officially cleared with the 75-year-old blues singer.

Numero Uno’s blog post reportedly stated that Kanye originally used the sample on a track during his G.O.O.D. Friday promotion last fall, leading up to his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album (the deluxe edition of which was supposed to contain the song) in November. In the end, the track never made it onto the album.

Fast forward to Watch The Throne’s “The Joy,” about which, according to Concrete Loop, Numbero Uno wrote this:

“Wondering why we weren’t consulted on this new use, and baffled why we appear in the credits, for which we never asked, we contacted the sample clearance house. Even they cannot get a response from their own clients. Island Def Jam seems to think that Syl doesn’t have any fight left in him. We’re betting otherwise.”

At any rate, have a listen to the allegedly rogue song in question: