Usher Accused of Stealing Burn From Songwriter
Usher Raymond is the latest artist to get hit by the lawsuit bug.
According to Billboard Magazine, the superstar singer allegedly stole his platinum 2004 hit “Burn,” off of Usher’s multi-platinum Confessions album, from a songwriter named Ernest Lee Straughter.
Billboard states:
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. That means a jury might have the rare opportunity to listen to two songs and determine if the Usher song was stolen.
Straugther alleges he wrote the a song entitled “The Reasons Why,” for the R&B group Reel Tight in late 1998, under the name “No More Pain.”
After listening to that…c’mon, son. That song sounds nothing like Usher’s “Burn.”
Usher “Burn”:
Attorneys for the defense of Usher, producer Jermaine Dupri, EMI April Music, Sony Music, Arista Records, and others filed a motion on Friday, asking U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder to reconsider her August order denying summary judgment.
Straughter needs to show that the defendants had access to his work and there is similarity in the songs.
Good luck with that, Straughter.
Everyone, including Judge Snyder knows Usher was singing that song about Chili. Or was he?
We’ll see how this plays out.
