Nona Gaye Lawsuit Claims Robin Thicke Stole Musical Elements From Marvin Gaye

Nona Gaye’s lawsuit against Robin Thicke claims he stole musical elements from Marvin Gaye and knowingly committed copyright infringement.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Robin Thicke was surprised by the success of Blurred Lines.

But apparently Robine Thick wasn’t so surprised that he didn’t file a preemptive strike in form of lawsuit against Marvin Gaye’s children, which includes Nona Gaye and Frankie Christian Gaye. The lawsuit was filed on Auguest 15, with “Robin Thicke and his Blurred Lines collaborators suing ahead of time to stop any claims they thought the children of Marvin Gaye may or would have against their intentional copyright infringement of the Marvin Gaye song Got to Give it Up.” So it seems Robine Thicke is admitting the obvious in advance to Nona Gaye and family.

Other music reviews have noticed the musical similarities. Rob Hoerburger wrote in the New York Times:

“But what I keep coming back to is the song’s choice DNA…And that bass line came right from Marvin Gaye’s No. 1 hit from the summer of ’77, ‘Got to Give It Up’.”

Rolling StoneMagazine noticed how Robine Thicke seemed to borrow even the cowbell:

“When I first heard Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines, my reaction was the same as millions of other R&B fans: Hey, that’s Marvin Gaye’s Got to Give It Up.”

As NPR sarcastically once phrased the situation: “Robin Thicke’s song sounds like Marvin Gaye, so he’s suing Gaye’s family.”

Nona Gaye and her brother Frank are not so amused by being sued for someone else riffing off their father’s work. So Frankie and Nona Gaye counter-sued Robin Thicke for not only Blurred Lines but also for Love After War, which allegedly uses elements of Marvin Gaye’s After The Last Dance.

Nona gaye’s lawsuit also point out that Robin Thicke once admitted to being inspired by Marvin Gaye by saying:

“Pharrell and I were in the studio and I told him that one of my favorite songs of all time was Marvin Gaye’s Got to Give it Up. I was like, ‘Damn, we should make something like that, something with that groove.'”

Frankie and Nona Gay also allege that EMI failed to properly protect their father’s legacy. Sony, which owns EMI, denies these allegations by Frankie and Nona Gaye:

“While we have not yet seen the claims by the Gaye family against EMI, we have repeatedly advised the Gaye family’s attorney that the two songs in question have been evaluated by a leading musicologist who concluded that Blurred Lines does not infringe Got To Give It Up.”

Do you agree with Frankie and Nona Gaye that Robin Thicke committed copyright infringement against the family?