Kanye West’s ‘Vultures’ pulled off Apple Music amid legal troubles, but reappears hours later

The latest music from Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, was pulled off Apple Music on Thursday amid allegations he made distribution violations and used unauthorized samples.

“Vultures 1,” a joint album with R&B singer Ty Dolla $ign, was removed from Apple Music days after its Feb. 9 release, with no official explanation as to why. But within mere hours, the 16-track opus reappeared on the platform — again with no explanation.

Earlier on Thursday, a spokesperson for distribution company FUGA — a business-to-business platform for independent record labels — said they had declined to do business with the controversial hip-hop star when presented with the opportunity late last year to release “Vultures 1.”

However, that decision apparently didn’t stop the album from still being released through FUGA.

“On Friday, Feb. 9, a long-standing FUGA client delivered the album ‘Vultures 1’ through the platform’s automated processes, violating our service agreement,” the company said in a statement to Billboard.

This prompted FUGA to issue takedown notices to streaming platforms and work to remove ‘Vultures 1’ from their system. It’s unclear if West found a new distributor on Thursday, leading to the music’s near immediate return to the platform.

Meanwhile, individual tracks on the comeback project has been under scrutiny as well.

“Good (Don’t Die)” — which appears to sample elements of Donna Summer‘s 1977 hit “I Feel Love” — was removed from Spotify on Wednesday following copyright complaints from the late disco diva’s estate.

“Kanye West… asked permission to use Donna Summer’s song ‘I Feel Love,’ he was denied… he changed the words, had someone re-sing it or used AI but it’s ‘I Feel Love’… copyright infringement!!!” the estate wrote Feb. 10 in an Instagram Story on the official Donna Summer account.

The previous day, Ozzy Osbourne similarly accused Kanye West of sampling a Black Sabbath song after being denied permission, and slammed the rapper as an antisemite.

“@kanyewest asked permission to sample a section of a 1983 live performance of ‘Iron Man’ from the US festival without vocals and was refused permission because he is an antisemite and has caused untold heartache to many,” the 75-year-old rocker tweeted last Friday.

“He went ahead and used the sample anyway,” Osbourne continued, referring to a version of “Carnival” that West played at his album listening party. “I want no association with this man!”

According to Billboard, West ultimately swapped out “Iron Man” for a sample of “Hell of a Life” (from his album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”) on the final version of the song.