Ariana Grande and seven other songwriters were sued for copyright infringement by a hip hop artist Josh Stone, who claims that Grande’s 2019 Grammy-nominated single “7 Rings” was plagiarized from his song ‘I Got It’.
According to a lawsuit filed in US District Court in New York by Josh stone, who goes by the stage name DOT, “The song is a forgery, plagiarized from plaintiff Josh Stone who wrote, recorded and published the nearly identical original work, approximately two years earlier.”
Stones’s attorneys said in court papers, “Indeed any comparative analysis of the beat, lyrics, hook, rhythmic structure, metrical placement and narrative context, by musicology experts or everyday listeners alike, demonstrates clearly and convincingly that ‘7 Rings’ copied ‘I Got It,’.”
The papers further said, “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.”
The lawsuit names Grande and seven other co-writers as defendants, along with several publishing companies involved in the song, including Universal Music Group.
The filed suit also claims that in 2017, Josh Stone played several tracks including ‘I Got It’ in a meeting with Universal Music Group, and one of the defendants, Thomas Lee Brown, who work with Ariana Grande was also present in the meeting.
The suit further claimed that, Brown simply took “I Got It” to Grande and the other defendants and repackaged it into the hit.
The song has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, including record of the year.
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