Christian rappers Flame and Lecrae sue Katy Perry about "Dark Horse" hit

POP STAR Katy Perry is being sued by Christian hip-hop artist Flame, who claims her hit "Dark Horse" ripped off his track "Joyful Noise" which featured Lecrae and was originally released on 2008's Grammy-nominated album 'Our World: Redeemed'. The accusation is that Perry used their track without permission, tarnishing its "devoutly religious message" with images of "witchcraft" and "black magic." "Dark Horse" topped the US Billboard chart for several weeks in January. The group of rappers - Flame aka Marcus Gray, Lecrae Moore, Emanuel Lambert and Chike Ojukwu - are seeking damages from Perry, guest artist Juicy J, Capitol Records and songwriters Dr Luke and Max Martin for copyright infringement. Court papers in St Louis, Missouri, show they also want an injunction and profits gained from the unauthorised use of their track, stating Perry had performed "Dark Horse" at sold-out concerts throughout the US and sold millions of copies.

Said the rappers' complaint, "The devoutly religious message of Joyful Noise has been irreparably tarnished by its association with the witchcraft, paganism, black magic, and Illuminati imagery evoked by the same music in 'Dark Horse'. Indeed, the music video of 'Dark Horse' generated widespread accusations of blasphemy and an online petition signed by more than 60,000 demanding removal of an offensive religious image from the video."

The video for Dark Horse was edited in February this year following the complaints, with a pendant featuring the Arabic word for God being digitally "scrubbed" out of the scene. More than 440 million people have watched the video on YouTube since February this year.