Robin Thick: Paying homage or Straight Jacking?

2013 has to been labeled as the “Blue eyed Soul of R&B. Where as many of the former kings of R&B are now too busy making Billboard Top 40 pop hits or trying to please fickle pop crowds, Guys such as Justin Timberlake and Robin Thick saw this as an opportunity to cash in on a genre thats been considered a graveyard. Both Timberlake and Thick have released what the masses would be considered the “Best R&B” albums in years and dominated the charts throughout this whole year.

While everyone predicted Timberlake to do monster numbers(which he did) It was Robin Thick whom after years of writing hit songs for many acts and releasing solid “Grown and Sexy” albums had his biggest year yet. The credit mainly has to go with his Summer smash single Blurred Lines which is arguably the biggest song of the year and out of Thick’s career. With a loop of the classic Marvin Gaye track Got to Give Up, A guest verse from the King of the South T.I. and Michael Jackson like background vocals from Pharell, The Song became acceptable to both hip hop(due to T.I.) and the masses. You can hear it within every Cookout, Old school party, club, and Family Reunion throughout. The song introduced Thick into a new audience which led to his top-selling album to date.

With the Success comes Controversy and it mainly stems from the fact that Marvin Gaye’s estate sued Thick, Pharell and T.I. for what they felt was copyright Infringement of Gaye’s classic Got to Give Up. Thick then later counter sued claiming that the chords were different and that while it was inspired, is clearly not a jack of the classic. The feud isn’t dying down anytime soon and it raised a bunch of eyebrows. Was Thick paying homage or was he trying to steal Gaye’s work and claim credit? Be the Judge yourselves: