Appearing in court to testify that he and collaborator Ludacris didn’t steal lyrics or a beat from someone else’s work for their 2003 hit, “Stand Up,” Kanye West rapped a snippet of the track at the request of the judge. After West offered a few profanity-filled lines, the blushing judge responded: “I’m sorry I asked.” West and Ludacris are being sued for copyright infringement by I.O.F., a hip-hop act from New Jersey group that claims the the beat and some lyrics for “Stand Up” were nicked from their 2001 song, “Straight Like That.”
Talk: With all the sampling in hip-hop, can you ever really call it stealing?
