Stolen Songs
See the artists who have been accused of copyright infringement.
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Mary J. Blige - MJB and Production Team The Clutch are being sued by Jay Ballard and Kim Jones for her 2007 track “Take Me As I Am.” Ballard and Kim claim The Clutch stole their song of the same name, which was released in 1995.
2 / 20
Common - Andrew Marks and London McDaniels accused Com of sampling “Will The Day Come” without permission on his “Take It EZ” song despite having credited the writers in the album’s liner notes.
3 / 20
Diddy - Earlier this year, Tom Patti filed a lawsuit in Springfield, Mass Court claiming that the bottle Diddy uses for his Unforgivable cologne is an imitation of glass sculptures he made back in the ‘80s.
4 / 20
Birdman - In a lawsuit filed in New Orleans’ U.S. District Court back in 2008, Birdman owes $400,000 to several publishing companies for using their songs without permission.
5 / 20
Destiny's Child - Late last year, DC was hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit for their 2004 hit, “Cater 2 U.” Sources say Kelly Rowland took issue with former manager Mathew Knowles for the suit. "Mathew [Knowles] has a long history of trying to get songwriters to add Beyonce's name to songs she didn't compose, just so she gets publishing royalties. That information eventually became widely known, and now anyone who wants to accuse Kelly or Destiny's Child of stealing material has ammunition to [sue]."
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6 / 20
Ludacris - New Jersey-based group I.O.F. sued Ludacris and Kanye West, accusing the pair of getting their hook for Luda’s “Stand Up” from their song, “Straight Like That.” Luda and Kanye won the case in court.
7 / 20
Lauryn Hill - Vada Nobles, Rasheem Pugh, Tejumold and Johari Newton took Lauryn Hill to court for co-production and writing credits on 1998’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” She settled the suit out of court in 2001.
8 / 20
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - The same writers who sued Common for “Take It EZ” have accused Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Akon and Swizz Beatz of stealing their song for their single, “I Tried.”
9 / 20
Black Eyed Peas - Last year, Ebony Latrice Batts also known as Phoenix Phenom and Manfred Mohr filed a lawsuit against the Black Eyed Peas, individually and as a group, accusing the foursome of copying their song “Boom Dynamite” on their smash single, “Boom Boom Pow.”
10 / 20
Mariah Carey & The-Dream - Preston Marshall and Demario Driver claim they emailed their song, “Are You the One” to music executive Jeff Huffman back in 2008 and later heard a version of the song retitled, “My Love” featuring Mariah Carey, on The-Dream’s "Love Vs. Money" album.
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11 / 20
Snoop Dogg - Michael Henderson is suing Snoop Dogg for allegedly using parts of his “Ridin” song for his no.1 single, “Drop It Like It’s Hot.” Henderson also says the track borrowed from a song titled “Hands on the Wheel.”
12 / 20
Wyclef Jean - Two years ago, Brooklyn rapper Blahz revealed to Wendy Williams that he’d filed a lawsuit against Jean for sampling his song without authorization. Blahz (born Martel Ellis), claims Clef sampled his 1996 song, “Danger” for his “Welcome to the East.”
13 / 20
The Neptunes - Pharrell and Chad were named in a lawsuit against defunct pop group NSync. Songwriter Ben Freeman Jr. contends the group’s 2001 hit “Girlfriend" borrows from his old group TRB’s 1995 song, “Be My Girlfriend.”
14 / 20
Lil Wayne & Birdman - Thomas Marasciullo claims he recorded some “Italian-styled” spoken words for Cash Money Records, but was never told what the recordings were for and wasn’t compensated for his work. In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Federal Court, Marasciullo says Weezy and Birdman used his voice on two CDs.
15 / 20
Timbaland - Producer David Cortopassi sued Timbo, accusing the producer of sampling parts of “Spazz,” a song Cortopassi recorded with 1960s group The Elastik Band. Tim used the track to record “Throw it on Me” featuring the Hives. He eventually settled the suit.
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