Taylor Swift is now facing a $42M lawsuit over allegedly stealing the lyrics of her hit song Shake It Off from R&B singer Mr. Braham also known as Jesse Graham.
Graham accused Swift of stealing the lyrics of his song called Haters Gone Hate, which he wrote back in 2013.
Aside from the $42M compensation, he also wants to be included as writer for the track.
"Shake It Off" is on top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for September in 2014, making it Swift's second number-one single in the United States. The song received various awards including Favorite Song at the 2015 People's Choice Awards. It also received nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 2015 Grammy Awards.
Graham claimes copyright ownership for the lyrics "haters gone hate" and "playas gone play" which are also in Swift's song.
The chorus of Graham's song goes "Haters gone hater, playas gone play/ Watch out for them fakers, they'll fake you everyday." While Swift features lyrics such as "Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play/ And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate." And another line goes, "And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake."
Aside from the similarity of the words used, the musicality are non-comparable.
Graham believes that Swift copied the lyrics of his song since there is "no way" she could have used this initially if not for him.
"Her hook is the same hook as mine. If I didn't write the song Haters Gone Hate, there wouldn't be a song called Shake It Off," Graham said.
"At first I was going to let it go, but this song is my song all the way," he added.
A legal source released a statement saying, "Mr. Braham, who is representing himself, cannot claim copyright protection for the phrases 'haters gone hate' and 'playas gone play' because the Copyright Act does not protect short phrases and these phrases are not original to him.
"In addition, and most damning to Mr. Braham's claim, the two songs have absolutely nothing in common."
No official statement had been released yet by Swift's representatives.
