Kanye West’s trademark “gold digger” lyrics might belong to someone else.
The rapper-producer is being sued for illegally sampling lyrics from an obscure 1974 song in his 2005 “Gold Digger” hit, TMZ reports.
Trena Steward and Lorenzo Pryor, the children of the late David Pryor, filed a civil complaint for copyright infringement, among other claims.
The pair claim that their father’s voice singing “Get down” three times closely resembles Kanye’s line, “Get down girl, get down, get down.”
Other lyrics in question are “Step Up,” “It’s the Hottest Thing” and “Step Up Front,” Yahoo reports.
Steward and Pryor are demanding a jury trial where they hope to be awarded $150,000 per infringement and attorney fees, the news outlet reports.
West’s “Gold Digger” is a four-time multi-platinum single. The lawsuit says the song has sold more than 3 million copies in the United States and tens of millions worldwide.
This isn’t West’s first time being accused of illegal song sampling.
In September the Grammy Award-winning rapper was sued for using illegal samples in his 2010 album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.”
In 2010, West was sued by musician Vincent Peters over similarities between West’s single “Stronger.” The judge ruled in West’s favor saying that he referenced the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s maxim, “that which does not kill us makes us stronger.”