Ariana Grande is being sued for "ripping off" another song with '7 rings'

17 January 2020, 13:05

Ariana Grande '7 Rings'
Ariana Grande '7 Rings'. Picture: Jim Spellman/WireImage // Republic Records
Rachel Finn

By Rachel Finn

Apparently the song copies parts of a song by hip-hop artist Josh Stone.

Ariana Grande is being sued for copyright infringement over her 2019 hit ‘7 Rings’.

Hip-hop artist Josh Stone, otherwise known as DOT, has claimed that Ari’s song copies parts of his 2017 song ‘You Need It I Got It’.

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He claims that he took the song to music industry execs, including producer Tommy Brown, who has worked extensively with Ariana. Josh hopes to get a cut of the profits from the singer's song as well as an order from a judge prohibiting ‘7 Rings’ from “seeing daylight” (which seems slightly odd, considering the song already came out last year).

‘7 Rings’ lifts its melody heavily from the 1959 song ‘My Favourite Things’ from The Sound Of Music, meaning that 90% of the songwriting royalties already go to the estate of original songwriters Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, according to the New York Times.

Ariana Grande - 7 rings

Ariana's song includes the repeated line ‘I want it, I got it’, while Josh’s song features the line ‘You need it, I got it. You want it, I got it’. According to a lawsuit filed in New York, two forensic musicologists analysed the choruses of each song and found the rhythm and notes to be extremely similar.

“Literally, every single one of the 39 respective notes of ‘7 Rings’ is identical with the 39 notes of ‘I Got It’ from a metrical placement perspective,” the suit claims. “Said another way, the rhythm and placement of the notes and lyrics are identical.”

Josh Stone - "YOU NEED IT I GOT IT" [Official Video]

What do you think? Do the two songs sound similar?