Songwriter to Kanye -- You Jacked My "Good Life"!

Posted Mar 26th 2008 11:19AM by TMZ Staff

A wacky songwriter-producer in Maryland says that Kanye West is diggin' his gold, lifting his tune "Volume of Good Life" for the Kanye smash hit "Good Life."

In a rambling lawsuit filed in Maryland District Court, Dayna Staggs (aka D'Mystro) is suing Kanye -- and his record label, Roc-a-Fella -- for copyright infringement. Staggs says that West "didn't obtain a license to use 'Volume of Good Life'" for his tune, and points out that Kanye was "only at the age of 6 or 7 years of age [sic]" when his song was written.

D'Mystro is also peeved because Kanye's song "contains vulgar and offensive" images and "harms the reputation" of his much cleaner song. He wants 85% of all world sales of the proceeds from the music that uses his work, though he doesn't explain how he came up with that number. Kanye's label hasn't returned a message seeking comment.

Filed under: Celebrity Justice, Music

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16. you people are straight up ignorant. kanye is a musical genius and youre just hating if you dont see that.

Posted at 6:01PM on Mar 26th 2008 by K-Sean

17. Kanya West is by far an idiot. He acts like he is educated and knows things beyond his years but in essence he is a self centered jerk. His music is also crap, except Stonger....which was Daft Punk so that scratches Kanya out once again. He doesn't deserve any attention or awards, even though he constantly whines about how he does.

Posted at 7:45PM on Mar 26th 2008 by Ada

18. All i want to say is that if kanye is so wack who is ur favorite rapper? Gucci Mane or Soulja Boy.
I dont think that kanye stole anything from anybody, he's too creative to have to steal anything
and tell me he dont have some of the hottest lyrics.

Posted at 9:13PM on Mar 26th 2008 by kanyeisdope

19. Stop hating on Kanye! Don't be mad because he is doing his thing and doing big things. Most of you would can't imagine what it's like to be in his shoes. So until you have walked in those shoes, keep your mouth shut! That is the problem today always talking about folks and hating! It's sicking that you guys are haters because you don't have it going on! Get it together and do something positive, make a difference in somebody's life! Good Grief!

Posted at 1:44PM on Mar 27th 2008 by Bailee Jay

20. #19, "EX-ZACHARY", including the song that kanye sampled. in the liner notes of the album cover, the daft punk song is credited, as well as the original song (edwin birdsong 'cola shape baby'), so if you hate kanye because of sampling, then why don't you hate daft punk for the same reason?

Posted at 5:14PM on Mar 27th 2008 by LB2SD

21. Something is rediculously fishy about this.. the kanye record was released over a year ago, and i highly doubt Def Jam would release this at all without clearance, i have a feeling he doesnt even own the rights to his own music and is trying to scheme money for himself. As for those that have garbage to say about kanye saying he "steals" music are idiotic and have no knowledge of what sampling is. Sampling is an artform and is not "stealing" music .. as for those saying "stronger" was the only good song and that was because it was a daft punk song. are also ill informed, for one the layering/chopping/drumming on that track are beautiful.. and theres also the added synths played over the sample.. as well as the fact that Daft Punk is one of the biggest electronica groups that uses samples in their music

Posted at 6:30PM on Mar 27th 2008 by BRICC Of STG Productions

22. uh......is it like impossible to find his version of the song....i could have sworn that PYT was sampled for good life

Posted at 12:36AM on Mar 28th 2008 by ukidding?

23. and i can't believe how many people on this post are hating on Kanye...and ya'll all bought the record lmao

Posted at 12:37AM on Mar 28th 2008 by ukidding?

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