Taylor Swift is having to go to trial this year to fight a lawsuit for copyright accusation against her that has been ongoing for the last five years. Swift was first sued in 2017 by the songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler for “plagiarizing” their song “Playas Gon’ Play’ written for the band 3WL in 2001.

Even though this case was dismissed in 2018 it was picked back up for reevaluation in October 2019 by a three judge panel from the ninth court of appeals. This revaluation was confirmed in September of 2020 when a Los Angeles judge declared they would be moving forward with the case. After this decision was made Hall made a statement praising their decision.

“This case is giving voice to all of those creatives who can’t afford to stand up and protect their work in the face of well-financed Goliaths,” Hall said.

While the men say they’re giving a voice to these smaller artists, the phrases used in the songs are sung in very different ways. The only similarity between the songs is the lyrics, “haters gon hate” and “playas gon play”. Everything else about the songs are completely different.  Even if you were to play both songs back to back it would be difficult to find similarities in the meanings, instrumentals, voices, along with the other original lyrics.

After listening to both songs it’s hard to notice anything similar, given how much influence both the 2000s and 2010s pop music had on these songs. Even though Hall and Butler claim that Swift stole the lyrics, I think that Swift had no ill intentions and just used those phrases because it went with her song. While it is totally possible that she did copy these lyrics, it’s unlikely, given that she writes her own songs and has never had this problem before.