Kanye West and Jay-Z have hit a bum note with one songwriter who claims that they lifted his material without permission.
The two hip-hop moguls are being sued by musician Syl Johnson, who claims in a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Illinois Friday alleging that West and Jay-Z sampled his 1967 song "Different Strokes" for a tune on their recent collaboration "Watch the Throne."
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According to Johnson's suit, the pair had first solicited permission to sample "Different Strokes" on the song "The Joy" for West's album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," but were shot down, and the song was left off the album. The tune ended up on "Watch the Throne," which was released in August.
According to the suit, the defendants claim they received permission to sample the song from an entity called the Numero Uno Group, which has never had any authorization to license the tune.
"Different Strokes" has been sampled by a number of artists, including Michael Jackson, Kid Rock and Will Smith, the lawsuit states.
Johnson, who also names Island Def Jam, Universal Music Group and Roc-a-Fella Records in the suit, is seeking actual and punitive damages to be determined at a jury trial.
Listen to "Different Strokes" and "The Joy" below.
Attempts by TheWrap to obtain comment from Universal, West and Jay-Z were unsuccessful.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.