EXCLUSIVE: Ye Avoids Default As Judge Wipes “Flowers” Default Judgment

July 07, 2026

Ye dodges a looming default judgment as a judge resets his years-long sample fight with Trax Records over Move Your Body.

Ye caught a big break in his long-running fight with Trax Records after a federal judge tossed out defaults that were stacking up against him.

Judge Eldon Fallon signed the order Monday in New Orleans, setting aside defaults entered against both Ye and his company Donda Media.

The move gives Ye a fresh shot at actually fighting the case on the merits rather than losing it on paperwork alone.

Trax Records filed the suit in November 2022, claiming Ye’s Donda 2 track “Flowers” lifted Marshall Jefferson’s 1986 classic “Move Your Body” without clearance.

The label says the sample runs through the track 22 times and wants up to $150,000 in damages plus an injunction.

Ye’s team has stumbled through the case for years, even losing his lawyers at one point, as AllHipHop previously reported.

For years, Trax couldn’t track down Ye to serve him with the complaint, according to Rolling Stone, which left the case stalled.

Once service finally landed, Ye and Donda Media failed to answer, and the court entered defaults against both of them.

Trax then moved for a default judgment, but the two sides reached a consent agreement instead of letting the case end that way.

The order Fallon signed denies Trax’s original push for a default judgment as moot, since the consent deal already covers that ground.

It also wipes out an earlier motion Ye’s side had filed asking to set aside the same default, since that request is no longer needed either.

Ye and Donda Media now have 21 days to actually respond to Trax’s complaint per the order.

Trax isn’t the only party that’s tangled with Ye over unlicensed samples. Billboard’s running tally of his sampling lawsuits counts at least 14 cases filed against him over the years.

Court records show the new deadline falls on July 27, giving Ye’s side three weeks to file an actual answer rather than face another default.

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