Bruno Mars and his collaborating producer Mark Ronson have been accused of plagiarizing on a portion of last year's Grammy winning hit pop song "Uptown Funk". Former girl group "The Sequence" says that the track lifts its hook from their 1979 hit "Funk You Up."
The group's spokesperson, Kali Bowyer, claims that the hook of the two songs is too similar to be a coincidence, and cites other similarities between the tracks. The song was the biggest hit for the group, and featured one of the first female rap performances ever, courtesy of lead singer and rapper Angie Stone. Stone has gone on to become a successful R&B singer who has had four top 10 R&B albums including one, which hit number one. The other two members of the group, Cheryl Cook (Cheryl The Pearl), and Gwendolyn Chisolm (Blondie) released new music under the group's name, without Stone, last 2011.
Although a lawsuit hasn't yet been filed, there are rumblings that this may occur soon, and the stakes are huge, given the popularity of "Uptown Funk". The song won the 2015 Grammys for both Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts for a staggering 14 weeks, the UK charts for seven weeks, while also hitting number one in many other countries worldwide.
This isn't the first controversy regarding plagiarism in the song. In April 2015, a settlement was reached with members of popular R&B funk group the Gap Band; due to similarities to the Gap Band's hit song "Oops Upside Your Head, " also from 1979. Gap Band members Charlie Wilson, Robert Wilson, Ronnie Wilson, keyboardist Rudolph Taylor and producer Lonnie Simmons were given a combined 17 percent stake in "Uptown Funk" and credited as writers on the track. A listen to the Gap Band track reveals that the chanted chorus "Oops upside your head I said oops upside your head" is practically identical to the "Uptown Funk" chant "Uptown funk you up I said uptown funk you up."
Now The Sequence say that their chant in "Funk You Up", "We're gonna funk you right on up, we're gonna funk you right on up", was also lifted for "Uptown Funk", complete with similar lyrics. You can listen to all three tracks below and draw your own conclusions. Do you think The Sequence have a point? Let us know in the comments below.
