Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk" is at the center of yet another plagiarism case. Just a week after the duo won Record of the Year at the 2016 Grammys, 1970s female rap trio The Sequence have accused the Uptown Special track of copying their hit.
The Sequence (Angie Stone, Cheryl the Pearl and Blondy) are accusing Ronson and Mars of stealing the beat and the hook from their 1979 single "Funk You Up," as TMZ reports. Their representative Kali Bowyer also made noted that there are other similarities between "Uptown Funk" and "Funk You Up."
The Sequence has yet to file a lawsuit against Mars and Ronson, but there are reportedly "rumblings" of litigation.
The Sequence's claims of similarities between their original funk song and Ronson's modern ode to the genre are in no means the first.
In the wake of the "Blurred Lines" lawsuit -- in which a judge ruled that the 2013 smash was so similar to Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up" that he gets a writing credit -- Ronson and Mars added The Gap Band to the list of songwriters on "Uptown Funk" due to a similar cadence to "Oops Upside Your Head."
Gossip Cop also reports that Serbian singer Snezana Miskovic, a.k.a. Viktorija, said that "Uptown Funk" is similar to her 1984 track "Ulice Mracne Nisu Za Devojke," but that she did not have the time or the money to take the case to court.
Mars and Ronson have yet to respond to the allegations that "Uptown Funk" copied "Funk You Up," and Bowyer has not responded for comment on when (or if) The Sequence will take this copyright case to a judge.
