Kanye West is being sued for the sample in "Bound 2." The man behind the sample, Ricky Spicer, was once the Ponderosa Twins Plus One singer and apparently had no idea his voice was being used on the Yezzus track. Once he heard it, he asked West to compensate him for using his voice or to cease and desist, according to the New York Daily News.
Ricky Spicer, 56, of Ohio, said he was stunned when he heard himself on the radio backing up West on the hit single "Bound 2," which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard charts in June. Spicer original sang "Bound" with the Ponderosa Twins Plus One back when he was only 12-years-old.
Besides just West himself, the lawsuit includes Roc-A-Fella, Island Def-Jam, Rhino Entertainment, and Universal Music Group. "Mr. Spicer's voice is sampled exactly as he recorded it and his voice ... is heard several times," said the suit, filed Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The Daily Mail reported that Spicer was living in the Ohio Boys Town orphanage when he was discovered at a 1969 talent show. Music publisher Chuck Brown got him to join The Ponderosa Twins - then made up of two sets of twins, hence Spicer becoming the "Plus One."
"He was their Michael Jackson," said Spicer's attorney, Vincent Imbesi. Apparently Universal Music Group, the parent company of Roc-A-Fella Records and Island Def-Jam, did not respond to a request for comment in this report.
Check out the recording of "Bound" by the Ponderosa Twins Plus One and then West's "Bound 2" below that.
