[READ: Image Control 101: Usher Teaches Kids the ABC Song on Sesame Street (VIDEO)]
The superstar is listed amongst a slew of of other musicians who are being sued in a federal lawsuit that claims that dozens of artists infringed on a copyright to a song called ‘Different Strokes,’ which was recorded in 1967.
Details below…
According to Yahoo News, Usher, Mark Wahlberg and Run-D.M.C. are among a slew of musicians who are being sued in a sprawling lawsuit claiming that dozens of artists infringed on a song by sampling it without authorization.
In the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Illinois on Tuesday, Twilight Records and Syl-Zel Music claim that the above defendants and others sampled ?Different Strokes,? which was sung and recorded by Sylvester Thompson, a/k/a Syl Johnson, in 1967, and later in a derivative version.
According to the suit, Usher infringed on ?Different Strokes? with his 1993 song ?Call Me a Mack,? while Public Enemy made use of the tune on multiple songs, including ?Fight the Power? and ?Fear of a Black Planet.?
Wahlberg, meanwhile, is allegedly in hot water for his tenure in the much-missed Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, whose ?The Last Song on Side B? made unauthorized use of the song, according to the suit. (Yes, his brother Donnie is also named as a defendant.) (source)
Wow! ?Syl Johnson ain’t playing with y’all! Could it be that Usher ‘stole’ from ‘Different Strokes’ in ‘Call Me A Mack’? ?The video for Usher’s ‘Call Me A Mack’ is below for your reference, the song was on the soundtrack for Poetic Justice:
AUDIO: Different Strokes by Syl Johnson
I can’t tell…. *shrug*