Taylor Swift is facing another lawsuit in the wake of her groping trial, but this one pertains to her music.
Songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler are suing Swift over the lyrics to her hit song “Shake It Off,” which they claim plays heavily off the hit song “Playas Gon’ Play” by 3LW, TMZ reports.
Hall and Butler wrote the 2001 hit for the then popular girls group. It rose as high as #81 on the Billboard Hot 100 list and the similarities between between it an “Shake It Off” aren’t hard to pick out.
The chorus of both 3LW and Swift’s hit songs feature a lot of the same lyrics:
“Playas, they gonna play and haters, they gonna hate,” the 3LW song goes.
“‘Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate,” Swift’s chorus echoes.
Hall and Butler believe they’re responsible for about 20 percent of “Shake It Off,” and they want “a ton of money” for their part in Swift’s mega-hit, according to TMZ, although an amount wasn’t disclosed.
Swift’s reps are dismissing the claims straight up.
“This is a ridiculous claim and nothing more than a money grab,” they told TMZ. “The law is simple and clear. They do not have a case.”
I’m no lawyer, but it doesn’t take a degree from Harvard to figure out that Swift borrowed a key line for this one. That’s going to make it a little harder to shake off than her reps are letting on.