An obscure hip-hop artist says one of Ariana Grande’s biggest hits had a familiar ring to it.
Josh Stone, in a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit filed Thursday, charges the singer’s global No. 1 smash “7 Rings” was directly lifted from one of his songs written two years earlier.
Grande’s massively successful single, a chart-topper last year in the U.S. and 22 other countries, swiped the beat, lyrics, hook, rhythmic structure and narrative context from Stone’s composition “You Need It, I Got It,” his suit alleges.
In this June 2, 2018 file photo., Ariana Grande performs at Wango Tango at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles. Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, FIle
The Grande song “is a forgery, plagiarized from plaintiff Stone who wrote, recorded and published the nearly identical work,” the plaintiff charges in a 17-page filing.
The three-minute song, with music and lyrics credited to Grande and four other songwriters, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts in January 2019 and quickly became an international juggernaut. The song’s video has garnered more than 674 million views on YouTube to date.
“This deception negatively impacts (Stone) because he is not receiving the credit due for the success experienced by ‘7 Rings’ and he is not able to further his career aspirations in the music industry,” read the court papers.
Stone, a former Long Islander who performs under the name DOT, seeks a jury trial and asked for unspecified damages. He also demanded a judgement that Grande and her co-defendants had violated copyright law and called for the “destruction (of) all copies of ‘7 Rings’ in their possession or under their control.”
According to the lawsuit, Stone pitched his song to Grande co-defendant Tommy Brown at a June 2017 meeting where the two discussed working together.
“Josh Stone believed that Defendant Brown was interested in collaborating with him … instead, upon information and belief, Brown simply took ‘I Got It’ to Ariana Grande and the other defendants and later repackaged ‘I Got It’ as ‘7 Rings,’” the lawsuit alleges.
Emails to Grande’s manager and her music publisher for comment on the lawsuit were not returned Friday.
Copy the Story LinkComments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
