A jury found Katy Perry’s 2013 hit, Dark Horse, guilty of copying a 2009 Christian rap song.
Dark Horse was the third single off of Perry’s album, Prism, and spent four weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in early 2014, according to AP News. It features rapper Juicy J and includes a mix of pop and hip-hop sounds. Additionally, the song earned Perry a Grammy nomination, and she even performed it during her 2015 Super Bowl halftime show.
The verdict was reached by a nine-member federal jury in Los Angeles. This comes five years after Marcus Gray and his other two co-authors first sued in 2014, claiming that Perry’s song stole from Joyful Noise, a song Gray released under the stage name Flame. The case is currently in the penalty phase, meaning the jury will decide how much Perry and other defendants owe Gray for copyright infringement.
Jurors eventually found all six songwriters and all four corporations that released and distributed Dark Horse were liable. This included Kerry and Sarah Hudson, who wrote the song’s lyrics, along with Juicy J who only wrote his rap for the song. Capitol Records and Perry’s producers, Dr. Luke, Max Martin and Cirkut were also found guilty.
Gray’s attorneys claim that the beat and instrumental line in Dark Horse are extremely similar to that of Joyful Noise. Gray wrote the song with his co-plaintiffs Emanuel Lambert and Chike Ojukwu.
Perry was not there when the verdict was read, and she has yet to comment on the matter.
