While fans may be used to Usher burning up with charts, the R&B veteran is the latest hitmaker feeling the heat – heading from the charts to the court over a plagiarism claim. Joining Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Leona Lewis, the ‘My Way’ maestro will soon be making his way to defend his case after songwriter Ernest Lee Straughter convinced a judge that Mr. Raymond’s 2004 Jermaine Dupri-produced ‘Burn’ plagiarized a work of his.
Billboard reports:
Last month, a California federal judge found there to be sufficient possibility that Usher and co-defendants who produced the song had access to Slaughter’s work, “Reasons,” created in 1998. The judge accepted a musicologist’s report that noted substantial similarity between the songs and denied a motion to dismiss the case on summary judgment.
Take a listen to both cuts after the jump and you be the judge:
Usher’s ‘Burn’:
Slaughter’s ‘Reasons’ later known as Reel Tight‘s ‘No More Pain’:
Defendants Usher, Jermaine Dupri, and Arista Records have yet to comment. Billboard further reported, ‘leaving aside the issue of whether these songs sound alike, the big controversy at the moment in the lawsuit is whether Usher and Dupri had access to Straughter’s song.’
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