Pharrell warned after the Gaye family was successful in suing him over copyright infringement over his hit “Blurred Lines” that artists would repeatedly come under fire now for being “inspired” by music from the past. And now it appears Pharrell might have been right because Jermaine Dupri is now accusing Ciara of stealing his musical style.
In a new interview with Yahoo, Dupri explained that he felt sympathetic to both sides in the Pharrell and Gaye family case.
“Younger producers like myself and Pharrell, we make records that are influenced by other records that are out there,” Dupri. “That’s how hip-hop has always been created — it has some kind of element of something [from] the past. Or sometimes we just take the entire sample and we give the artist the credit for that sample. We’ve all been in a position where it could go like this or we can give the producer the credit.”
However, Dupri explained that he’s in a similar situation to the Gaye family because he believes that Ciara’ new single, “I Bet,” is too similar to Usher’s 2001 hit, “U Got It Bad,” which he co-produced.
“Ciara’s new single is a complete rip-off of Usher’s ‘U Got It Bad,'” Dupri said. “I’m clear on what I made and I’m clear on how music influences people and I’m clear on chord changes and how people move things.. … It might not be as evident as the ‘Blurred Lines’ situation, but I believe the same thing happened to me.”
Dupri also said that it sounds like the Tamia song “Still,” which he also produced. Dupri says that he, Usher and producer Bryan-Michael Cox all noticed the similarity and he revealed that he does plan to contact Ciara’s reps about the song.
Well, it looks like Ciara may end up having to pay out some hefty money or endure a court battle if Dupri really does take action against her and her producers.
