On The G !: EXCLUSIVE: Usher, Producers Accused Of Stealing Hit Single “Caught Up”

Saturday, September 8, 2012

EXCLUSIVE: Usher, Producers Accused Of Stealing Hit Single “Caught Up”

by Grouchy Greg Watkins

Zacharia L. Edwards, Mitch Moses and Vince McLean filed the lawsuit on September 7 in United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The songwriters claim they wrote the musical composition for “Caught Up,” which consisted of original material.
The lawsuit claims that in October 2002, the trio met with Michael Barackman, senior director of A&R at Arista Records.
They played the music Barackman, who wanted to play the song for L.A. Reid and Mark Pitts, who were looking for material for Usher’s new album.
In 2004, Usher’s album Confessions was released with substantial similarities to the original version, according to the complaint.
When Moses and McLean brought it to the attention of representatives of the label, they were allegedly threatened with being black balled from the music industry.
“An ordinary lay observer could listen to the two musical compositions at issue, and given the theme, melody, hook, lyrics and chorus, reasonably find that the two songs are substantially similar and that and a friend and infringement has occurred,” the lawsuit reads.
Zacharia L. Edwards, Mitch Moses and Vince McLean are suing for copyright infringement and seek an undetermined amount of damages.