‘Bully’ has hardly followed a smooth road to release, slipping from last summer to December, then January, and now finally to March 27, even as Kanye West lines up his first US concerts in years at SoFi Stadium for two April dates. But while the album edges closer after months of rollout chaos and copyright smoke, one legal cloud that has shadowed his music since 2024 has now finally thinned.

On March 18, 2026, West finally reached a settlement agreement in the copyright lawsuit brought by Memphis rappers Criminal Manne, DJ Squeeky, and the estate of late rapper Kilo G. Court filings in Tennessee federal court show the parties have reached a settlement in principle resolving all claims, while District Judge Thomas L. Parker has given them 30 days to submit a final written settlement.

That legal storm circled around ‘F** Sumn’, the 2024 track on which West and Ty Dolla $ign allegedly used a sample of ‘Drink a Yak (Part 2)’ without permission. The November 2024 complaint further claimed their team only moved to clear the sample after the song had already dropped.

This, however, is far from West’s first brush with copyright fire. Donna Summer’s estate accused him of using ‘I Feel Love’ without approval on ‘Good (Don’t Die)’, a dispute settled in May 2024 before the track vanished from streaming services. Billboard has also reported that West has faced 12 copyright lawsuits since 2019, while just last month, Swedish artist SWSH sued West and Ty Dolla $ign over claims they sampled her 2018 song ‘Break the Fall’ without permission.

However, as ‘Bully’ inches closer after a long trail of delays, West is still far from done with the legal turbulence swirling beyond the album.

Amid ‘Bully’s’ rollout, Kanye West has found himself under fresh legal heat again

Kanye West has already found himself under fresh legal heat elsewhere, with a California jury last week finding him liable in a separate case tied to his $57 million Malibu home. The court ordered him to pay $140,000 to a former project manager, who alleged he was injured while working on the property and later wrongfully terminated. West, however, is not letting that ruling sit quietly, having already moved earlier this week to overturn the jury’s decision.

That legal mess is still moving too, as a last-minute bankruptcy filing pushed the foreclosure auction of the gutted Malibu beach house to April 7. Developer Stephen “Bo” Belmont bought the property for $21 million in 2024, but now faces accusations of defaulting on an $18.5 million loan, while the home itself has become another harsh marker of West’s fall from the billionaire-era image once powered by his Adidas-Yeezy empire.

However, as the courtroom noise around West refuses to fully slow down, this latest settlement clears at least one legal knot just as 'Bully' moves closer to release on March 27, 2026.

What are your thoughts on West’s legal settlement ahead of ‘Bully’ release? Let us know in the comments.

Written by

Lisa Roy

Edited by

Itti Mahajan