Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate all the way to court, as Taylor Swift is learning the hard way.
Swift is being sued by R&B artist Jesse Graham, who claims the chorus of her hit single “Shake It Off” is stolen from a key phrase from his 2013 song “Haters Gone Hate.”
Graham’s song, which includes the lyrics “Haters gone hate, playas gone play/ Watch out for them fakers, they’ll fake you every day,” is the basis for the lawsuit against Swift, whose song “Shake It Off” includes the lyrics “Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play/ And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate” as well as “And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake.”
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Interestingly, Graham did not seem to be too litigious about the alleged plagiarism until Swift refused to take a selfie with him, but now he is adamant that he needs to get paid — to the tune of $42 million.
“Her hook is the same hook as mine,” he told the New York Daily News. “If I didn’t write the song ‘Haters Gone Hate,’ there wouldn’t be a song called ‘Shake It Off.'” He claims Swift uses the phrase approximately 72 times in the song.
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“At first I was going to let it go, but this song is my song all the way,” he said, claiming that he approached Sony and Swift’s record label, Big Machine, several times asking to be named cowriter on her hit — and for the aforementioned selfie.
Graham says Swift is “definitely trolling” him. Swift has no comment on the lawsuit.
Graham’s day job is running a religious organization called New Day Worldwide, and also plans to sue CNN for titling their morning show “New Day.”
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