Katy Perry has one less hit to her name after a jury ruled that parts of her 2013 hit “Dark Horse” were lifted from a song written by Christian rapper Marcus Gray, who is known as Flame.
Now they need to determine just what this will cost the future Mrs Katy Bloom. The damage phase begins today in federal court.
Gray had claimed that Katy ganked pieces of his 2009 song “Joyful Noise” for her song “Dark Horse” which appeared on her album “Prism.”
Katy herself took the witness stand and told the nine-member jury that “Dark Horse” was an entirely original work. Perry testified that her song was developed after her collaborators presented a series of short instrumental passages, hoping to ignite some inspiration.
“If something sparked my interest, I would go, `Hmm, I have some ideas,”‘ Perry testified.
The nine-member jury heard from musicologists from both sides who parsed a contentious 16-second instrumental phrase. Perry’s experts argued there is no similarity in the songs beyond generic elements, but Gray alleges the beat was unique and had been lifted from his “Joyful Noise” song.
“Joyful Noise” has about 3.6 million views on YouTube to date, while “Dark Horse” has 2.6 billion views.