Kimye on the cover of Vogue has hit a sour note with a wannabe Michael Jackson from the 1970s.
Ricky Spicer is suing Vogue publisher Condé Nast Entertainment for filming a video about the controversial cover that features Kanye West and Kim Kardashian — and a sample of his high-pitched voice in the background.
In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Spicer says he can be heard five times as West’s hit single “Bound 2” accompanies the lovey-dovey video that features Kardashian flouncing around in a white gown and bouncing their baby girl, North.
“Mr. Spicer’s voice is used substantially throughout the video, comprising approximately 44% of the vocals,” the lawsuit said.
Condé Nast did not get Spicer’s permission to use his voice — or cough up any cash, the suit charges. So Spicer is asking for unspecified damages.
This lawsuit follows one that Spicer, 56, filed in December against West.
Spicer says he recorded the lyrics that West sampled back in 1970 when he was the 12-year-old lead singer of a long-forgotten group call “The Ponderosa Twins plus One.”
The former frontman said his voice was “sampled exactly as it was recorded.”
The magazine declined to comment. “We don’t comment on pending litigation,” said Joe Libonati, vice president of corporate communications for Conde Nast.
Vogue editrix Anna Wintour has already taken heat for putting the unavoidable couple on the cover of the venerable fashion magazine.
“Well……I guess I’m canceling my Vogue subscription,” actress Sarah Michelle Gellar tweeted recently. “Who is with me???”
Wintour defended her decision to put the rapper and reality TV star on the cover.
“It was, I should add, entirely our idea to do it,” she insisted in a statement. “You may have read that Kanye begged me to put his fiancée on Vogue’s cover. He did nothing of the sort.”
For Spicer, this is his second brush with stardom.
Back in 1969, he was living in the Ohio Boys Town orphanage when he was discovered at a talent show by music publisher Chuck Brown.
Brown persuaded Spicer to join The Ponderosa Twins, a group that featured two sets of identical twins. Spicer was to be the “Plus One,” and Brown envisioned him as the band’s Michael Jackson.
But after a couple of minor hits, the group faded into obscurity and at least one member wound up in jail.
Spicer is now a construction worker in Cleveland.
