Miley Cyrus cops a $300m copyright lawsuit over 'We Can’t Stop'

Jamaican songwriter Michael May (who goes by the stage name Flourgon) is alleging that Miley Cyrus should not be taking credit for her 2013 hit ‘We Can't Stop’.

May has filed a US$300 million lawsuit in a New York federal court, in which he claims that Cyrus’s hit ripped off his 1988 song ‘We Run Things’, which was a substantial hit in the Caribbean and reached #1 in Jamaica.

It says the Cyrus song (which peaked at #2 in the US) used his vocal melody, rhythm, cadence and inflection in a “substantially similar hook.”

It also notes similarities between Cyrus’s refrain of “We run things / Things don’t run we” and May’s lyrics: “We run things / Things no run we.”

Both songs feature a theme of “defiant audaciousness in the realm of self-discovery and self-governance.”

May also reckons that around the time of ‘We Can't Stop’, Cyrus had reinvented herself as an “edgy” performer with tinges of a Caribbean sound.

Court documents relate, “Cyrus exchanged her trademark ‘good girl’ Disney profile for a gritty and hyper-sexualized image, quite often brazenly and defiantly invoking provocative and obscene statements, lyrics and dress and personal vocalizations to reflect the grittiness, aggression and sultriness associated with U.S. based hip-hop, R&B, urban and Caribbean music.”

May wants a court order prohibiting Cyrus from continuing to profit off the infringing song, saying its video already generated 100 million views.

The Cyrus track was co-written and produced by Mike Will Made-It, P-Nasty and Rock City, all named in the lawsuit.

Cyrus is listed as a songwriter, along with Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick due to a sample of their iconic 1985 hit ‘La Di Da Di.’