Angie Stone Says Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson Stole ‘Uptown Funk’ from Her
Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson's 2014 hit "Uptown Funk" was a complete rip-off from a song that was made 39 years ago.
At least that's what Angie Stone has claimed, and she said the pop singer and producer stole her tune "Funk You Up," which she penned with her all-female rap group The Sequence in 1979.
Moreover, the respected soul singer said she planned to sue Mars and Ronson, but a lot of lawyers refused to take the case, because they didn't want to go toe-to-toe with the powerful Warner Bros. company.
"As far as I'm concerned, the song belongs to us," said Stone in an interview with The Sun. "We have been robbed, railroaded, overlooked and completely disrespected. Everyone got paid but my group. The truth of the matter is no one on that suit deserves it more than The Sequence, because those lyrics are ours. 'Funk You Up' was ours. We branded it in 1979."
"Their record was not recorded before ours," she added. "And I think it is because we are women on the ballot, and we are getting railroaded. The truth is we have been trying to sue them long before the record became Record of the Year [at the Grammy Awards]."
Elsewhere in the interview, the "No More Rain" singer said since Pharrell and Robin Thicke lost their case against the Marvin Gaye Estate and was found guilty of stealing the legend's 1977 cut "Got To Give It Up," she's been encouraged to keep pursuing a lawsuit.
"A lot of attorneys didn't want to take the job, because the industry is crazy, because they don't want to p-ss off Bruno mars," Stone explained. "If my group cannot afford the millions of dollars it would take to fight for it, then they would pay millions to keep the lawyers fighting. They know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if we ever go through the ranks we'd take everybody out."