Taylor Swift’s Next Big Date Is In Front Of A Jury Over A Lyric Lawsuit
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ICYMI, Taylor Swift is defending herself against claims she plagiarized lyrics used in her mega-popular 2014 bop “Shake It Off.” She's currently the subject of a copyright lawsuit from the songwriters for 3LW, a group that had a single in 2001 called “Playas Gon’ Play." That lawsuit will soon be going to a jury trial.
But Taylor isn't backing down.
"The lyrics to 'Shake It Off' were written entirely by me,” Taylor said on Monday in a sworn declaration, obtained by The Guardian. “Until learning about Plaintiffs’ claim in 2017, I had never heard the song 'Playas Gon’ Play' and had never heard of that song or the group 3LW.”
This lawsuit has been swirling around for years—and was even dismissed by a judge at one point, only to resurface again recently.
Naturally, people have questions. Here’s a breakdown of the lawsuit, 3LW, and where things stand now.
Who is 3LW?
3LW, which is short for Three Little Women, is a former R&B group that was active from 1999 to 2006. The group had a hit in 2001 called “Playas Gon’ Play," which is at the center of the current lawsuit controversy. The group also had another hit called “No More.”
The group originally featured Adrienne Bailon, Kiely Williams, and Naturi Naughton. Oh, and BTW, Adrienne and Kiely went on to become part of The Cheetah Girls.
"It was a tumultuous breakup. However, I do look back and remember, 'Oh, I was on the TRL tour, opening up for Destiny's Child,'" Naturi later told People of the split.
What does the lawsuit claim?
So, the people who wrote "Playas Gon' Play," Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, are actually the ones behind the lawsuit. The 3LW group members are not involved.
Hall and Butler specifically accuse Taylor of lifting certain lyrics from their song for her own big hit, “Shake It Off,” per The Guardian. They filed the complaint on the basis of copyright infringement.
What are the lyrics to the 3LW song?
Okay, so here's where the comparison comes in. 3LW’s song features the chorus, "playas they gon' play and haters they gonna hate."
The lyrics that Taylor’s being sued over, on the other hand, are "playas gonna play, play, play, play, and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate."
You can check both songs out here to decide for yourself how similar or different they sound:
How long has this been going on?
A while, actually. The lawsuit was first filed in September of 2017, but the case was dismissed in 2018 after a judge said that the lyrics were “too banal” to be copied, (the judge pointed out that several other songs also had similar lyrics), per The Guardian.
The songwriters appealed that decision, per the Los Angeles Times, and an appeals panel brought the lawsuit back to life in 2021.
Taylor tried to have the case dismissed again, but a judge ruled that there were enough similarities for a jury to solve the issue, per The Guardian.
What has Taylor said about the allegations?
Taylor just issued a sworn declaration to the court where she denied the allegations.
In the declaration, Taylor said that she drew on “experiences in my life and, in particular, unrelenting public scrutiny of my personal life, ‘clickbait’ reporting, public manipulation, and other forms of negative personal criticism which I learned I just needed to shake off and focus on my music."
Taylor also said that she “wanted to provide a comedic, empowering approach to helping people feel better about negative criticism through music, dance, and the personal independence enabling one to just shake off the negative criticism.”
Taylor shared the lyrics that she’s being sued over are “commonly used phrases and comments” she’s heard in her life, including “players gonna play” and “haters gonna hate,” which she says she heard back when she was in school.
Taylor also said that she had never heard the 3LW song, noting that her parents did let her watch MTV’s Total Request Live until she was “about 13 years old,” and the song first hit in 2000, when Taylor was 10. Taylor’s mom Andrea Swift also submitted a declaration confirming this information, per the Washington Post.
Andrea said that she “carefully monitored both the television [Taylor] watched and the music she heard,” along with the family’s computer. She also couldn’t have heard the song elsewhere, Andrea said, noting that “Taylor did not attend sleepovers at friends’ houses as a young girl because we lived on a farm until she was 10 years old and I always preferred having friends come over to our home," the Post reported.
Has she been sued over these lyrics before?
Yep. Believe it or not, Taylor was sued by R&B singer Jesse Graham for $42 million over claims that she stole the lyrics from his song, "Haters Gone Hate.”
Graham's lyrics, like 3LW, include the phrases about "players" and "haters": “Haters gonna hate / Players gonna play / Watch out for them fakers / They’ll fake you every day," his song's lyrics say, per The Guardian.
The lawsuit was dismissed in February of 2022.
Clearly, "Shake It Off" has been causing some major waves. Stay tuned to find out what happens next.
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