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Music

A Guy Is Suing Taylor Swift for Using the Phrases "Haters Gone Hate" and "Playas Gone Play"

A lawsuit has been filed against her track "Shake it Off."

Taylor Swift is being sued for $42 million for allegedly stealing the lyrics to her hit 2014 song "Shake It Off." R&B singer Jesse Graham has claimed in legal papers Swift stole the words from a song he wrote in 2013 called "Haters Gone Hate." Graham claims he has copyright ownership of the phrases "haters gone hate" and "playas gone play" and told the NY Daily News that there was "no way" Swift could have written the lyrics to "Shake it Off" without hearing his track first.

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Let's take a look at the evidence.

The chorus to "Shake it Off" features the lyrics "Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate."

The chorus to Graham's track "Haters Gone Hate" features the lyrics "Haters gone hater, playas gone play / Watch out for them fakers, they'll fake you everyday."

"Her hook is the same hook as mine. If I didn't write the song 'Haters Gone Hate,' there wouldn't be a song called 'Shake It Off,'" Graham told the NY Daily News. Initially, he says, he contacted Swift's label Big Machine four or five times about the issue, asking to be named as a writer and requesting a selfie with the singer. After his claims were dismissed, he decided to not let the issue go and filed a case. In case you're interested on whether or not the two songs sound similar, here they are, embedded below.

Graham's track is pretty catchy. It's a groovy jam. As for being similar to "Shake it Off" though? We'll let you decide.

It's worth noting though that if Graham intends to sue Taylor Swift for the use of the phrases "haters gone hate" and "playas gone play," he's going to have a busy year on his hands. A quick search on Rap Genius sees the phrase used in tracks from Lil Reese to Mick Jenkins. There are countless "haters gone hate" T-shirts for sale online—including one featuring The Muppets. And the phrase has surely been in common use since the very first historical account of shade being thrown.