Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I. (real name: Clifford Harris) are taking the Marvin Gaye family and Bridgeport Music (owner of Funkadelic compositions) to court to protect Thicke's song "Blurred Lines," according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The lawsuit, which was filed in a California federal court on Thursday, is a complaint about comparisons between two songs.
According to the suit, a copy of which was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, "Plaintiffs, who have the utmost respect for and admiration of Marvin Gaye, Funkadelic and their musical legacies, reluctantly file this action in the face of multiple adverse claims from alleged successors in interest to those artists. Defendants continue to insist that plaintiffs' massively successful composition, 'Blurred Lines,' copies 'their' compositions."
The suit claims the Gaye family is alleging that "Blurred Lines" and Gaye's "Got to Give It Up" "feel" or "sound" the same, and that the "Gaye defendants are claiming ownership of an entire genre, as opposed to a specific work."
As for Funkadelic, there's said to be claimed similarity between Thicke's hit and Funakedlic's "Sexy Ways."
Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" has not only been the song of the summer but has also become the song of Robin Thicke's decadelong career. It is his first No. 1 song on Billboard's Hot 100 and helped catapult the album of the same name to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 the week of its release, making it Thicke's first chart-topping album as well.
But for all its success, the song has also been a troublesome burden on Thicke. Feminist watchdogs and media outlets decried the song and NSFW video for "Blurred Lines" as promoting rape culture.
Read more at the Hollywood Reporter.
Jozen Cummings is the author and creator of the popular relationship blog Until I Get Married, which is currently in development for a television series with Warner Bros. He also hosts a weekly podcast with WNYC about Empire called Empire Afterparty, is a contributor at VerySmartBrothas.com and works at Twitter as an editorial curator. Follow him on Twitter.