Ye and Ty Dolla Sign Called Out for Allegedly Sampling Portishead on 'Vultures 2' Track Without Permission
The Portishead song in question, "Machine Gun," was previously at the center of unauthorized sample claims involving The Weeknd's "Belong to the World."
It looks like the long-delayed Vultures 2, which saw an independent release over the weekend under the YZY banner, will be in and out of headlines in the coming days due to sampling issues, much like its predecessor.
Geoff Barrow, he of Portishead and more, offered a quick observation of the "for fuck's sake" variety following the release of the second entry in Ye and Ty Dolla Sign's planned trilogy on Saturday. In an update to X, an increasingly useless platform known during its better years as Twitter, Barrow directed listeners to the Playboi Carti-featuring "Field Trip" track.
The song, in its current form at least, appears to sample Portishead’s 2008 single "Machine Gun," which longtime readers will note was previously at the center of similar claims in connection with The Weeknd’s "Belong to the World" a decade ago.
"FFS," Barrow wrote on X when sharing a 34-second clip of Ye and Ty's "Field Trip" track. "Not again."
Perhaps owing to the manner in which the Vultures projects have been released, at least thus far, actual official credits for each song on Vultures 2 are not currently available. That’s likely to change in the coming months, as the first Vultures ultimately received a credits-focused update on streaming after its own start-and-stop release. The album’s No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 chart marked the 11th such chart-topper in Ye’s career.
In fact, Ye and Ty have indeed signaled that Vultures 2 will continue to be tweaked post-release. A message on the YZY site as of this writing reads, "Updated songs will be published in real time."
Barrow's callout isn't the only alleged sampling issue to have popped up in the 48 hours or so since Ye and Ty's latest hit streaming. SWSH has suggested their "Break the Fall" appears on the duo's "530" without having actually been cleared.
Amid the original Vultures rollout earlier this year, Ozzy Osbourne slammed Ye for the unauthorized use of a live version of Black Sabbath’s "Iron Man" track for the turnaround in "Carnival." As Ozzy explained, Ye’s team had reached out about the sample in question, at which point they were denied. Yet, according to Ozzy, they moved forward regardless.
"[Ye] was refused permission because he is an antisemite and has caused untold heartache to many," Ozzy said in February, marking a reference to Ye’s string of antisemitic remarks, including (but not limited to) his expression of admiration for Hitler during an Alex Jones interview in late 2022.
