Man Claims His Beat Nicked by Pharrell

31. That first paragraph is kind of silly to people who actually listen to music other than what's on your typical commercial FM station. Geggy Tah -- this song, in particular -- was fairly popular on modern rock and college stations in the mid to late 90s. The song reached #16 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart...that's really not the definition of obscure. And this song was definitely used in a widely seen car commercial even more recently than that. It's not like Geggy Tah was a local club act or a garage band that never went anywhere...they were on David Byrne's record label.

Here's the thing, though. I don't think this is a case of sampling. The keyboards and rhythms in The Clipse song are fairly typical in the hip-hop world. And "Whoever You Are" does have subtle chord changes and instrumentation that I don't hear in the backing tracks on "All I Wanna Do (Feel Like Me)."

To me, it just sounds like the vocals in the chorus of The Clipse song were sung exactly like the verse lyrics in "Whoever You Are."

I'm not sure that's enough to call it copyright infringement, but if the courts determined George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" ripped off The Chiffons' "He's So Fine", then I would have to think Tom Jordon has a case here.

Posted at 4:24PM on Jul 16th 2009 by BK

32. When the video started, I thought I was punked. Here's a possible punishment for the Neptunes, let Pharrell remake it because I can sing this song many days. It could be a subliminal message to help people from engaging in road rage! Why couldn't they settle to keep the lawyers from getting rich?

Posted at 4:37PM on Jul 16th 2009 by Mother Nature

33. Feel Like Me is a total rip of Geggy Tah's original song.

Posted at 4:02PM on Jul 17th 2009 by Emmyrad

34. Geggy Tah was the BEST -- find their old cds. Greg is now one half of Bird and The Bee, showing off his amazing keyboard skills. We miss Tommy. You guys were totally ripped off! Go get 'em.

Posted at 4:50PM on Jul 16th 2009 by Susan

35. You all should rock out to Giggy Tah in your car, that song hit a couple of great mix cd's back in the day and its fantastic! Pharells chorus is such a rip off! Giggy better get his money!!

Posted at 4:50PM on Jul 16th 2009 by Shannon

36. Hell, they didn't even bother to change it up...

Posted at 4:58PM on Jul 16th 2009 by RemingtonSteal

37. Geggy Tah had a big hit in the 90s and it was even on MTV constantly.

Posted at 5:00PM on Jul 16th 2009 by holly

38. Yes, It's a rip off and they are legally entitled to 100% of any publishing royalties. But as this album was never released by Elektra, 100% of nothing equals? You guessed it, NOTHING.

Posted at 5:09PM on Jul 16th 2009 by sas

39. TMZ hadn't heard of Geggy Tah because its a bunch of young douchebags and Harvey Levin's old ass

Posted at 5:30PM on Jul 16th 2009 by APeAR

40. Ever heard of the band Geggy Tah? We hadn't either...

Wow, Are you serious?!?!

Anyone over the age of 28-29 will recall this song with ease - it was actually very catchy and memorable. In short, I loved it.

So whomever wrote this has to be a kid no older than 25.

And BK... you are right on point with all that you said.

*Changing Subjects*

I am a fan of Pharrell... but not so much of Clipse (brothers). Though I am very aware of whom they are and can name many songs that they have recorded.

That said, if it was released to a mixtape... there is not much that the band can sue for as mixtapes are for 'Promotional Use Only.'

Translation: No albums are [supposed to be] sold. So they would get no royalties. And even then, mixtapes do not sell as well as conventional albums so the payday would be quite small.

I would be interested to see how many BDS spins the song got however, as they could make some nice change from the publishing.

Posted at 8:39PM on Jul 16th 2009 by Since Age 3

41. It's clearly the derivative...there simply isn't any question to that...same chord progression and melody To the guy repeating the comment about a "scum coming out of the wood work", copyright laws exist to protect against taking other people's creative content without paying for it and passing it off as your own, which is what happened here. Yes, sampling occurs as do entire covers, but licensing fees are paid for those. The question here is what are the damages? Probably no actual damages if the song was never released as people have claimed, but there could most certainly be statutory damages.

I was a HUGE geggy tah fan and still regularly refer to their show as being one of the most imaginative I've ever seen (and I saw more than 70 shows last year excluding festivals)

Posted at 5:50PM on Jul 16th 2009 by Cory

42. who? and wgas. sit down brotha!

Posted at 6:07PM on Jul 16th 2009 by mehere

43. being a fan of geggy tah. i just feel bad that no one recognizes them without pharrell taking their melody. theyre pretty talented band and would hope if anything is to come from this lawsuit is that geggy tah finally gets the honor they deserve. also this isnt the first time pharrell has done this, you just to let it go this is what he does. where was everyone when kanye ripped steely dan?

Posted at 6:07PM on Jul 16th 2009 by Then all i have to say is...

44. Definite ripoff, but both songs suck, so who really cares...

Posted at 6:12PM on Jul 16th 2009 by rimman

45. How 'bout sue the Beatles then for all the music they interpolated. Might as well indict all pop music.

Posted at 6:23PM on Jul 16th 2009 by Crackpipe Davis