It’s hard to imagine will.i.am and Pharrell pulling each other’s pigtails over who gets to sound more like a Dr Seuss character, but here we are.?
The Black Eyed Peas singer is suing Pharrell for calling his Youtube channel ‘i am OTHER’, claiming that it’s “confusingly similar” to his own brand. Like will.i.am is ever going to mistakenly turn up to Pharrell’s album release party and start signing autographs. Does anyone else sense yet another Freaky Friday remake looming on the horizon?
Earlier in the year, will.i.am sent a cease and desist letter to Pharrell that pretty much claimed ?he owns the phrase ‘I am’ and because they have both ‘achieved great distinction in the hip-hop world’ and?people might find two super-important music industry moguls using the same two words in the same order confusing. Well that’s slightly patronising, but we’ll let it go. For now.
Pharrell seemed to think so as well, because he’s asked a court to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds of a ‘higher level of distinction’. In regular-joe terms, it means that musically, will.i.am needs to sit the fuck down because he isn’t fit to lick the dirt from Pharrell’s Nikes.
He’s also filed court documents that allege will.i.am is a big fat thief, pointing out that Willy has also got his fingers in several other copyright-infringement pies.
Like the most boring game of tennis ever, Will.i.am has now returned the serve ?and said that Pharrell is also a thief, seeing as he’s being sued by Marvin Gaye’s family for stealing one of the late singer’s songs for ‘Blurred Lines’. Why they’re so eager to take credit for that song, we’ll never know.
If you need to steal other people’s songs in order to be successful, then this whole lawsuit has basically turned into a massive game of ?’Who’s the tallest midget?’.