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The Case:
Marcus Gray and two co-writers sued Katy Perry in 2014, claiming her hit song, “Dark Horse”, ripped off Gray’s song, “Joyful Noise,” which he released under the name Flame.
Gray is a Christian rapper, and he accused Perry, a former Christian pop singer turned superstar, of stealing the beat off his track.
“Dark Horse” was a single off of the 2013 album Prism, and it spent four weeks on top of the Billboard Top 100, and earned Perry a Grammy nomination. While Perry’s lawyer claimed that they were using the “basic building blocks of music,” the nine jury members disagreed, and now, five years later, have ruled that Perry copied from “Joyful Noise”.
Now, we want you to decide. Are these songs too close to comfort? Listen on!