[Exclusive] Songwriter Suing Kanye West for ‘Stronger’ Speaks Out + Listen to BOTH Versions

Over the weekend, we held an exclusive interview with Vincent Peters. If his name sounds familiar, it’s because Peters is pursuing a lawsuit against Kanye West over West’s 2010 hit song, “Stronger.” Peters claims Kanye’s version is an illegitimate copy of a song he recorded in 2006. And according to Peters, he (Peters) gave John Monopoly, Kanye’s business manager, a copy of the song. Earlier this year, a federal judge dismissed Peters’ claim, finding there wasn’t enough similarity between the two tunes. Listen to both versions of “Stronger” here: [audio:http://THEJASMINEBRAND.COM/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/STRONGERS.mp3|titles=STRONGERS]

Fast forward to the present day, and Peters has since appealed and explains his side of the story to the Jasmine BRAND.

Listen to the full interview here:

Peep a few excerpts:

On Peters’ industry and professional background:

“I started out going to college in New York. I ended up working with a couple artists like Juelz Santana and Cameron. After college I ended up moving to Chicago and linking up with some of Kanye’s people that were in GOOD Music. I wrote a couple songs, gave them some songs. We were trying to put together a project with Interscope but that never came into fruition. After that I moved back out East, where, right now, I’m running a fashion label. And I have a consulting and technology company. Right now my main project is working with the designer Stevie Boi. We just did the cover of Vogue Japan and Vogue Italy. Anna Dellorusso, the editor of Vogue Japan, loves us. She actually just valued one of Stevie Boi’s pairs of shades at $3.9million yin, which is like $51 thousand. So we’re getting ready to launch his line in stores across the country. And, right now, I’m just dealing with Kanye.”

“My song (which is also titled “Stronger”) was written in the summer of 2006. It was a little bit of a different feel but the overall concept was pretty much the same. I gave it to John Monopoly, who, at that time, was the president of GOOD Music. And everybody at GOOD Music had to give a Yay or Nay on the project and that was one of the songs.”

“I went to the United States Military Academy at WestPoint. One of my buddies’ father actually hooked me up with a congressman that gave me my recommendation to WestPoint. And he was actually in Chicago, at the time, studying for law school. And I just remembered the real strong connection he had with his father. His father actually passed my senior year in high school. So just being around him that whole summer while he was up studying for the bar (law examination), the whole situation with his father passing while he was in college, and some of the things his father had done for me, and helped me get my nomination, that’s what really inspired it. The whole situation made us stronger as individuals, even at such an early age. His father really opened us up to the game, and politics, and big money, and took my father under his wing, and helped mentor him. So just that whole situation was like it didn’t kill us, it was a sad situation, but at the same time it just made us stronger…”

“At one point I was working with a gentleman by the name of Kevin Shine, he’s actually credited in the ‘Graduation’ CD. He was the A&R, he actually works with Wayne Williams at JIVE, as a special consultant. When I came to Chicago he took me around and introduced me to a lot of people. And I ended up meeting some people who worked with Lupe. And at that time Lupe was working with Kanye’s group. And [his people] hooked me up with John Monopoly’s executive assistant, who was pretty much running the show, as far as setting up meetings and identifying new artists, and it just went from there. She hooked us up, we gave her music, went over to his crib, played some tracks, and that started the relationship.”

“I actually played the song at his crib. A lot of people who do music know how it is: you’ll send emails back and forth. Whoever’s making the decisions is like ‘let me listen to the music, see if this kid is even worth meeting with.’ And if they are then you have a second meeting. Then you play the music on the big speakers and see what the face-to-face reaction is once they get to meet you in person. So it started in email, and then played it again for him at his house, and left the CD’s over there.”

“Kanye played the initial song on Mark Ronson’s show over in the United Kingdom, when the song wasn’t done. And I was like “Oh, OK, that’s cool, similar concept.’ But at the point it wasn’t clear if it was for a mixtape or what. If somebody takes your concept and puts it on mixtape, you’re just out of luck. They can take your beats, they can take your lyrics, they can take whatever. It’s hard to show a correlation from a mixtape to how much money an artist actually made. And the price of litigation for something like that is not even worth it. Then they actually made the album, then a bunch of my friends started calling me like ‘Hey, Kanye used your song, how much money did you get?’ And I’m like ‘what are you talking about?’ So then I actually heard it when they pushed it out as a single and I’m like ‘wow, he really got me.’ At that point I was still young in the game, as far as money. And you can’t just sue a Kanye West [without having] a rock solid case and 6 figures of money to burn. You have to have a lawyer with that expertise to be able to litigate, with the resources to serve the record label, to serve the artist, to serve the publishing company, to serve Shawn Carter (Jay-Z). It’s a huge process.”

“Yes, I actually sent a couple of emails to the head litigator at Universal as well as Kanye West’s council. And they, pretty much, gave me the run-around for about 6 months to a year. At that point I didn’t have the funds or the backing to pursue litigation’s. So at that point I was just trying to see if I could resolve it under the radar. It’s not really cool to sue somebody. You might be on blogs or people may be talking about you, but I have other stuff that I’m trying to do, that this is not a good look for.”

“The original case was dismissed earlier this year because, as the judge put it, we didn’t correctly plead our case. So there are some adjustments that were made to the initial case, and then the case was re-filed, on appeal. You can have all the emails, you can have the same song, you can have all this, but you have to have money, your case has to be right, this is a huge process…”

“No. We had a settlement conference 3 months ago (on the day he recorded the “Otis” video). All the parties were on the phone. And at that point we were way far away, as far as what we wanted to come away with. What they offered wasn’t [good enough]. To me it was essentially chump change. So I was like “no, at this point I would rather continue with the appeal.’ And you win, you win, if you lose, you lose. That’s the only thing that situation has taught me: you definitely gotta pay the cost to be the boss.”

“It’s hard for me to get into it without being biased. There are a lot of rappers who, for a lack of a better description, try to give off a certain image where they’re way smarter than they really are, or they’re way more cultured than they really are, and I think Kanye is definitely one of those people. I think I sent you a picture of when he actually spelled Van Gogh’s name incorrectly. If you can’t spell something as simple as Van Gogh, why would you be familiar with a German philosopher who lived 2 or 3 centuries ago? My inspiration wasn’t necessarily Nietzsche, but he’s saying his is. Is he familiar that Nietzsche also laid the basis for a lot of the Nazi movement in World War 2? So if Kanye is cool with that then… alright.”

“We hear a lot about the informal network that some people may call the Illuminati or the network of people who have money and make things go a certain way… That network and those types of people are very real. That’s really my biggest lesson. People think they’re about to make it to the next level, and they don’t really realize what that next level really is. So to go against somebody that has that type of backing, you yourself have to have that type of backing. In my research, I found someone who Kanye took a song from word-for-word, but because they had no backing the case went past the statute of limitations and he just took the song… It’s well known in Chicago that [Kanye] is “inspired” by a lot of other music artists. When I first sued, people were like ‘why’d you take so long to sue?’ And I’m like, ‘you have no idea, you gotta lawyer up at 50 or 60 G’s right away, just to put a lawyer on retainer.”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t say nothing. I just want my money.”

“I think we have to file something on the 19^th of this month, and then at that point, the court will have everything it needs. And then my lawyers and his lawyers will have to go in and make oral arguments in front of the judges. And then it’s decided from there.”

After listening to BOTH versions of “Stronger” and hearing from Peters’ side, what are YOUR thoughts? For all things Vincent Peters, follow him @LordVinceP.

Peters & Gabourey Sidibe