Taylor Swift faces $42m lawsuit over Shake It Off

Taylor Swift’s global smash hit Shake It Off isn’t an example of a “sick beat” but a nicked beat, according to R&B artist Jesse Graham.

Graham has issued a $42m lawsuit against Swift, levelling accusations of Bad Blood against her. He alleges that although Shake It Off bears no melodic resemblance to his song Haters Gone Hate, she took the distinctive lyrics of her chorus from his slow jam, which appears on his album Sexy Ladies.

Graham sings: “Haters gonna hate / Players gonna play / Watch out for them fakers / They’ll fake you every day.” Swift’s chorus runs: “’Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.”

“Her hook is the same hook as mine,” Graham told the New York Daily News. “If I didn’t write the song Haters Gone Hate, there wouldn’t be a song called Shake It Off.”

Graham orginally asked Swift’s management for a co-writing credit on Shake It Off – along with Swift, Max Martin and Shellback are credited as writers – and for a selfie with Swift. They responded that his claim had no merit. “At first I was going to let it go, but this song is my song all the way,” he said.

It is, however, possible Swift had never heard Graham’s song. The Sexy Ladies album appears to have been barely reviewed, and it seems unlikely to have been given substantial airplay.