Five years ago, it was first reported that Katy Perry has been in a legal battle over her hit with Juicy J, now a court has made their decision on the case.
According to UsMagazine.com, Perry was being sued by Christian hip-hop musicians Flame for allegedly ripping off their song, ‘Joyful Noise.’ The group said the Faith-based tune was “irreparably tarnished by its association with the witchcraft, paganism, black magic, and Illuminati imagery evoked by the same music in ‘Dark Horse’.” Written in 2007 and released in 2008, the song received a 2008 Gospel Music Association Dove Award nomination for the best rap/hip-hop song. Now, just a week after Perry and producer Dr. Luke took the stand to defend their innocence, a jury has handed down a guilty verdict.
The case now goes to a penalty phase, where the jury will decide how much the plaintiffs are owed for copyright infringement.
Gray’s attorneys argued that the beat and instrumental line featured through nearly half of “Dark Horse” are substantially similar to those of “Joyful Noise.” “Dark Horse,” a hybrid of pop, trap and hip-hop sounds that was the third single of Perry’s 2013 album “Prism,” spent four weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in early 2014, and earned Perry a Grammy nomination.
