Ye and French Montana hit with lawsuit over sample tied to 2013 paparazzi clash clip used in “Where They At”

A lawsuit filed in connection with Ye and French Montana’s 2024 song “Where They At” accuses the artists of improperly using a sampled audio clip from Kanye West’s 2013 clash with photographers, according to Billboard’s reporting. The dispute centers on the opening of the track, which incorporates a clip associated with West’s well-known confrontation with paparazzi outside an L.A. restaurant.

Billboard reports that the sampled material includes the audio phrase “Don’t Take No Photos!” tied to the 2013 moment, which West captured as the interaction with photographers escalated. In the suit’s framing, the use of that clip in a later commercial recording is said to be unauthorized, putting licensing and rights clearance at the center of the case.

“Where They At” was released as part of Ye and French Montana’s collaboration, and Billboard describes the song as using the paparazzi-fight video audio at the beginning. The sampling dispute, as characterized in the coverage, turns on who holds the relevant rights to the clip and whether the parties behind the 2024 track obtained permission for its use.

The legal conflict reflects a recurring question in the music industry: how rights to short audio and video-derived material are handled when they are reused in new recordings. Sampling disputes can involve multiple layers, including the underlying composition, the specific sound recording, and any rights tied to the source footage or its production, depending on what is being reused and how it is fixed into the new work.

Billboard’s report does not provide additional publicly confirmed particulars in the details available here, such as the identity of the plaintiff or the specific claims and damages sought. It also does not confirm whether the suit is targeting the sample as copyright-protected content, contract-based clearance, or both.

If the allegations are litigated, the case could require courts to address questions about the scope of any rights in the 2013 clip and whether the sample in “Where They At” was licensed or otherwise authorized. It would also likely examine how the clip was recorded, distributed, and controlled after the original 2013 incident, as well as the extent to which the sample is recognizable and used in a way the law considers protectable.

For now, the dispute adds another high-profile legal test to the ongoing oversight of sampling practices in mainstream music releases, particularly when a famous incident becomes part of the copyrighted and market-facing media ecosystem through later remixes and reinterpretations.