Ozzy Osbourne wants nothing to do with Kanye West.
The Prince of Darkness took to X on Friday, February 9, to rip the controversial rapper and producer after West allegedly sampled a section of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” despite being denied permission to do so.
“@kanyewest ASKED PERMISSION TO SAMPLE A SECTION OF A 1983 LIVE PERFORMANCE OF ‘WAR PIG’ FROM THE US FESTIVAL WITHOUT VOCALS & WAS REFUSED PERMISSION BECAUSE HE IS AN ANTISEMITE AND HAS CAUSED UNTOLD HEARTACHE TO MANY,” Osbourne, 75, wrote. “HE WENT AHEAD AND USED THE SAMPLE ANYWAY AT HIS ALBUM LISTENING PARTY LAST NIGHT. I WANT NO ASSOCIATION WITH THIS MAN!”
The album in question is West and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures, which was scheduled for release on Friday but as of this writing is still not out. The album listening party took place Thursday, February 8, at the United Center in Chicago.
This seems to be familiar territory for West, 46, who has gotten into trouble for similar incidents in the past. In December 2023, he came under fire for sampling the Backstreet Boys’ 1997 hit “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” without permission. And in 2022, the company that owns Boogie Down Productions’ 1986 song “South Bronx” sued him for the same reason, though that lawsuit was eventually dropped.
Osbourne hasn’t always been this resistant to artists sampling his work. In January, he called T-Pain’s recent cover of “War Pigs” the best he had ever heard. Back in 2010, he took no issue with West sampling “Iron Man” on “Hell of a Life” from the album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
Of course, a lot has changed since then. As Osbourne alluded to in his tweet, West has since made a number of antisemitic and other controversial comments, leading him to lose a number of endorsement deals, most notably with Adidas.
Despite apologizing publicly, West has continued to make such comments, even as recently as Thursday night. During the listening party, he performed a song with the lyrics, “And I’m still crazy, bipolar, antisemite / And I’m still the king.”
Veeps, the streaming service that carried the event, abruptly cut the live feed shortly after West uttered the line. The company has yet to confirm the reason for shutting down the feed.
West plans to hold another listening party for Vultures on Friday night at UBS Arena in New York. He has not yet said whether he will remove the “War Pigs” sample — or anything else — from the experience.
