Kanye West Slapped With Copyright Suit Over His Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Samples

Hip-hopster is under fire for allegedly failing to pay the full amount owed for sampling a 1969 song by a New Orleans funk legend

Forget the Throne. Kanye West is on the legal hot seat.

The "Gold Digger" rapper is on the receiving end of a copyright infringement suit filed by a New York label that's accused him of swiping snippets of their 1969 tune "Hook and Sling, Part 1," by New Orleans singer-pianist Eddie Bo, used in two tracks off West's 2010 multiplatinum-selling album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, a copy of which was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, TufAmerica claims the hitmaker's label, Roc-A-Fella, and parent Universal Music Group paid a license fee of $62,500 for the right to sample "Hook and Sling" for West's songs "Who Will Survive in America?" and "Lost in the World."

However, the company alleges that the parties "failed and refused to enter into written license agreements that accounted for their multiple other uses of [the song]."

Court documents claim bits of "Hook and Sling" popping up in the "Lost in the World" video and a short film Kanye made based on his single "Runaway."

In its complaint, TufAmerica is seeking unspecified damages for the infringements.

Lawyers for West have yet to comment.