We can't imagine getting sued for "7 Rings" is one of Ariana Grande's favorite things
Aux Features Music
If you can measure a pop song’s success by the number of accusations of plagiarism, theft, and copyright violation it brings down on its creators’ heads in a post-“Blurred Lines” era, then Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” is doing pretty well for itself. (It’s not doing too bad on metrics like Grammy nominations, streams, or Billboard rankings, either, actually.) Even ignoring the obvious inspiration that the Thank U, Next track lifts from Rodgers and Hammerstein—whose “My Favorite Things” donates a hefty and obvious portion of its melody—the song has been accused by at least three different artists of ripping off their stuff since its release last year, including high-profile rappers Soulja Boy and 2 Chainz. And while that beef has reportedly now been quashed, a new artist has entered the arena in order to bring a copyright violation suit against Grande, her labels, and her producer on the song.
Specifically, Variety reports that rapper Josh Stone is accusing “7 Rings” producer Tommy Brown of having heard his song “You Need It, I Got It” back in 2017, and then used its chorus as the basis for the pounding, slightly hypnotic “I want it, I got it” that serves as a recurring element in Grande’s song. The suit in question cites the massive amounts of money “7 Rings” has brought in—stated to have been something on the order of $10 million—and invokes the work of two forensic musicologists, with claims that “Literally, every single one of the 39 respective notes of ‘7 Rings’ is identical with the 39 notes of ‘I Got It’ from a metrical placement perspective.” (As the suit then helpfully adds, that means they sound a lot alike.)
Of course, the nice thing about suits like this is that it’s easy for the layperson to just literally cue up both songs and listen to them back to back (even if that might not be quite as official as diving deep into the world of forensic musicology). In this case, the Stone song definitely has a couple of moments where you might find yourself thinking, “Oh, that sounds a bit like that one bit of an Ariana Grande song.” But at the same time, it’s not exactly the most complicated beat in the world that’s being discussed here, either. (Apologies, again, to all the fans of the metrical placement perspective in our audience.) As such, it’ll be interesting to see whether a court even lets this thing in the door, and if so, how much patience a judge will have with Stone’s efforts to prove Brown even heard his track in the first place, let alone attempting to prove he ripped it off.
23 Comments
The Blurred Lines suit has really opened the floodgates. I still think though that the decision there was wrong. If you could claim ownership of a feel or sound of a song, Motown could clean up. As the article states, there are only so many ways to put notes together and real charges of copying may not get the attention they deserve with the bandwagon suits being filed on any song that makes a bunch of money. Bad times for musicians. Great times for insurance companies selling copyright insurance.
Came here to, ironically, post basically exactly this. The guy in question may have been a douche, but the Blurred Lines verdict really fucked things up; pop music (and I mean that in a very general sense, easily including acts like, for example, NIN) has always been a push and pull between novelty and familiarity. Letting people sue over that . . . yikes.
If there was true justice, Clyde Stubblefield who’s improve drum riff in Funky Drummer is the basis of over 1,0o0 songs from Public Enemy to George Michael, should have been able to go after them all. In reality he saw practically nothing. Without that riff who knows where music would be today.
Clyde Stubblefield who’s improve drum riff in Funky Drummer*whose improv
If there was true justice, Clyde Stubblefield who’s improve drum riff in Funky Drummer is the basis of over 1,0o0 songs from Public Enemy to George Michael, should have been able to go after them all. In reality he saw practically nothing. Without that riff who knows where music would be today.
I already wrote a similar comment to this one on another website so you can be expecting to hear from my lawyers.
Fine. Take your damn star and be happy you get that before we involve lawyers.
People were too busy celebrating that it was bringing down Robin Thicke and his douchy creepy song to understand or care that it was opening a Pandora’s box.
I think if it wasn’t for the video, that song would have quickly slipped into obscurity.
I mean…the song is catchy as hell so I think it would have been a hit. Not sure it would have been every-fuckin-where though.
If all those YouTube mashup videos weren’t proof enough.
So they’re doing music with a simple beat, sometimes buying this beat from different internet resources (I forgot how this is named, but I know a lot of “SoundCloud” rappers profit from making beats for open libraries) and than they sue when someone else is going the same circle, lmao.
Thanks for introducing me to Josh Stone, Av Club. I was just wondering, “what if Logan Paul did roids and was worse?”
So this young woman’s(?) name is “Big Ariana”?
COOL DETACHED GUY DETECTED
That’s literally just her name, and not having heard of a famous person does not make you interesting.
It’s an ironic nickname because she’s tiny. But what’s more amazing is that it’s her last name, too!
Any relation to “Large Marge” is purely coincidental.
If three different artists are claiming it to be similar enough to be stolen, then isn’t that kind of an indication that it’s just not a super original premise/tune?
I’m sure she’ll try her best to break free from any legal consequences
I’m not surprised. The dwarf lords are notoriously litigious.
I came here just for a Tolkein reference. Thank you.
The fact that these idiots feel comfortable suing over this shows the damage the Blurred Lines decision has done. This is insane.