A jury held the rapper liable for infringing an instrumental track at a 2021 listening party for his chart-topping album. Vanguard Award winner Kanye West speaks onstage during the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards at Microsoft Theater on August 30, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images Trending on Billboard A jury says Ye (formerly Kanye West ) must pay a six-figure damages award for failing to clear a sample included in an early version of the Grammy-winning song “Hurricane” from his chart-topping album Donda . The Tuesday (May 12) verdict, which followed a weeklong trial, held Ye and his companies liable for infringing the copyrighted instrumental track “MSD PT2” on an early demo of “Hurricane,” which the rapper played to a stadium of fans at a pre-release Donda listening party in 2021. Jurors said Ye must share a cut of his profits from that listening party, held in Atlanta and streamed live on Apple Music, with the sample’s owners.…