The defense attorney representing Katy Perry can blame some Flame fans for the lawsuit against their client.
On Tuesday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Flame, along with Lecrae and Da’ T.R.U.T.H., are suing Perry for infringing the copyright of their song “Joyful Noise” on her song “Dark Horse.” The suit also claims that their track has been “irreparably tarnished by its association with the witchcraft, paganism, black magic and Illuminati imagery evoked by the same music in ‘Dark Horse’.”
Making Flame aware of this tarnishing were his fans. Driving from a concert, Flame’s DJ, Cho’zyn Boy, noticed an “influx” of tweets to Flame and Lecrae asking them about the new Katy Perry song. Flame doesn’t listen to Katy Perry, so he had no idea why his opinion of her music mattered.
Cho’zyn Boy searched for and listened to the song out of curiosity, which turned into shock.
“Wow,” Cho’zyn Boy said, telling Flame, “You got to hear this. It sounds like ‘Joyful Noise.’”
Cho’zyn Boy then turned on the djay 2 app on his computer and made a side-by-side comparison of the tracks. Here’s the audio he created to show Flame how similar “Joyful Noise” and “Dark Horse” are and a breakdown of how he did it.
· 0:00-0:25 Joyful Noise (original song)
· 0:25-0:40 Dark Horse (original song)
· 0:40-0:53 Speeds up tempo from 66 BPM to 76 BPM
· 0:53-1:07 Takes pitch down one decimal from Db to C
· 1:07-1:17 Mixes in Joyful Noise
· 1:17-1:23 Side-by-side, both at 72 BPM
· 1:23-1:30 Joyful Noise by itself
· 1:30-1:48 Dark Horse by itself
Cho’zyn Boy explained the difference to Rapzilla.
“What listeners are hearing is Katy Perry’s ‘Dark Horse’ at 66 beats per minute and they’re hearing Flame’s “Joyful Noise” at 76 beats per minute,” he said. “When they’re separated, they seem a bit different, but when you bring them to the same tempo and you just change her pitch down one octave, they’re identical … When things are that similar, it’s hard to dispute.”
Publicists for Flame and Katy Perry told Rapzilla that the artists are unable to comment due to the ongoing lawsuit. Here are several listeners on Twitter who noticed the similarity long before the trial.
That Katy Perry and Juicy J track is super weak. They stole @lecrae “Joyful Noise” sound.
— KIDD (@KiddMMF) January 27, 2014
Hey ain’t that Katy Perry “dark Horse” beat from @FLAME314 and @lecrae‘s “Joyful Noise” joint??
— Chris Williams (@ComedianChris) February 9, 2014
@Ameen_HGA maaan @lecrae hope yall got a check for this Katy Perry song
— Caresse (@caressedionne) January 27, 2014
