Pop star Taylor Swift has been slammed with a new $42 million lawsuit over the lyrics of her mega-hit “Shake It Off”.
The suit alleges that Swift stole lyrics from the 2013 song “Haters Gone Hate” by Jesse Braham. The R&B singer, who goes by stage name Jesse Graham, claims he owns the copyright of the phrases “haters gone hate” and “plays gone play,” both of which appear in Swift’s song.
“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,'” Braham told the New York Daily News.
The portion of Taylor’s song in question is: “Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play. And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate”, and “And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake”.
Meanwhile, Braham’s “Haters Gone Hate” features the lyrics: “Haters gone hate, playas gone play. Watch out for them fakers, they’ll fake you everyday.”
Braham claims there is no way that Swift could’ve written “Shake It Off” without being inspired by his song even though the two singles don’t sound similar at all. He told the New York Daily News that he’s been in touch Big Machine Records (Swift’s label) on multiple occasions: requesting to be identified as a songwriter on the single and to have a selfie with Swift. The label reportedly responded that his claim had no merit and denied his request.
“At first I was going to let it go, but this song is my song all the way,” said Braham.
In addition to suing Taylor Swift, the R&B singer plans to file a lawsuit against CNN since the name of their morning show New Day is similar to an organization he runs called New Day Worldwide.
It seems haters are gonna hate and Taylor Swift will just “Shake Off” this lawsuit.
