Jesse Graham (Photo : Instagram)
American R&B singer Jesse Graham has filed a $42 million lawsuit against pop star Taylor Swift. He claims that she stole the lyrics of her mega hit "Shake It Off" from his album titled "1989" released in 2014.
Graham particularly pointed to the phrases "haters gone hate" and "playas gone play" as coming from a 2013 track. Swift's song, has more than 1.1 billion hits on YouTube. He points out, "If I didn't write the song Haters Gone Hate, there wouldn't be a song called Shake It Off."
The R&B singer insists that Taylor's hook is the same hook as his song's, reports New York Daily News. He initially noticed the similarities when Taylor performed the song on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." He says there is no way that she could come up with those lyrics independently, Graham adds.
DailyMail notes that Taylor's song has the following words in its lyrics: "Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play/ And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate" and the chorus that goes "And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake."
Graham was initially content with being credited as the writer of the song and having a selfie with Taylor, but when the pop star thumbed down his request, he sought a cash compensation, reports the Straitstimes.
In addition to rejecting his first request, Taylor says that Graham's argument that she copied the lyrics is without merit.
Graham, who is the operator of New Day Worldwide, a church organization, also plans to file a lawsuit against CNN for the use of the words "New Day" as title of its morning show.
