(AllHipHop News) When Christian rapper Flame (né Marcus Gray) took Katy Perry to court for infringing on the copyright on his song “Joyful Noise” for her hit song “Dark Horse” featuring Juicy J.
Flame was about to go after his cut of Katy’s earnings from the hit song, which raked in over $41 million in worldwide sales.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTLeHuvHXuk
The song has sold 13.2 million units (combined sales and track-equivalent streams), is the second best-selling song worldwide for 2014.
As of 2019, it is one of the best selling songs in digital history.
But in a reversal of fortune, an appeals court overturned the original verdict and tossed the entire copyright infringement lawsuit.
The Hollywood Reporter stated U.S. District Court Judge Christian Snyder threw out the copyright infringement case after reviewing more evidence.
The rapper failed to the “extrinsic test” which “required that a copyright plaintiff identify concrete elements based on objective criteria that works are similar.”
The prosecution brought in an expert that just could not find the link that Gray prayed for to link “Joyful Noise” to “Dark Horse.”
“Dark Horse” was the first single off her fourth album and was quite successful.
The song featured Juicy J. It combined several genres like pop, trap, Hip-Hop, and electropop, creating what is called a “Southern rap-techno mashup.”
Flame is surely on his knees tonight, asking God to be with him during an appeal. With money like that up for grabs, we are sure this is not going away.