Ozzy Osbourne blasted Kanye West on social media on Friday, claiming the rapper used a recording of a Black Sabbath song without Osbourne’s permission and against his will.
“Kanye West asked permission to sample a section of a 1983 live performance of ‘War Pig’ [sic] from the Us Festival without vocals & was refused permission because he is an antisemite and has caused untold heartache to many,” the singer wrote in capital letters. “He went ahead and used the sample anyway at his album listening party last night. I want no association with this man!”
West and Ty Dolla $ign held a listening party in Chicago on Thursday for their new album, Vultures. Billboard reports the duo, calling themselves ¥$, played 12 songs at the event, including one titled “Carnival.” The duo is holding another listening event in Long Island, New York, on Friday night.
Reps for Osbourne and West did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s requests for comment.
Although event footage hasn’t surfaced of West using “War Pigs” (a song it appears Osbourne didn’t actually play at the Us Festival), the riff to Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” which Osbourne did perform at the festival, appears in the unreleased song “Carnival,” without lyrics. The sample is audible at the 1:45 mark of leaked audio of the track, and a video from the Chicago event includes the sample around the 1:16 mark in this video.
West previously (and legally) sampled “Iron Man” on his 2010 song “Hell of a Life.”
“Iron Man” was one of three Black Sabbath songs Osbourne performed at the Us Festival in 1983, which marked a new chapter for the musician since it was his first with guitarist Jake E. Lee playing with him. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak held two Us festivals, one in 1982 and one in 1983; the latter featured a “heavy metal day” with Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Judas Priest, and others in addition to Osbourne, and it attracted hundreds of thousands of fans. Six months later, Osbourne released his Bark at the Moon album.
Over the past year, West has come under fire numerous times for his repetition and promotion of antisemitic tropes, including a moment in 2022 when he said he would go “death con 3” on “Jewish people.” He eventually apologized on Instagram with a statement written in Hebrew, asking for forgiveness, but he has nevertheless continued to embrace antisemitic ideology, including wearing a T-shirt for the Norwegian metal musician Burzum, who has been fined for antisemitism, and modeling some of Vultures artwork in a way that evokes Burzum’s cover art.
Osbourne’s wife and manager, Sharon, is of Jewish descent. “We were brought up in basically a Jewish household,” she told The Jewish Chronicle last month. “My family, my father’s family, my aunt, my cousins, are all Jewish. And observant Jews who practice and love their religion. So Judaism is the only religion I have, and the only one with which I feel comfortable.”
Ozzy and Sharon sent up West and his partner, Bianca Censori, last year by dressing like them for Halloween.
