Liam Payne's debut solo single accused of 'ripping off' Shaggy's 'It Wasn't Me'

Earlier this month, Liam Payne became the final member of One Direction to release his debut solo single, with his track ‘Strip That Down’, which features Quavo and was co-written by Ed Sheeran and Steve Mac receiving a mixed response from fans.

Although most listeners agreed that ‘Strip That Down’ was incredibly catchy and had a great sound, many One Direction fans were left disheartened when they heard Liam repeat the lyrics: ‘I used to be in 1D/ Now I’m free’.

And it looks like that was just the beginning of Liam’s solo career drama, although there is more to this one than meets the eye.

After his appearance on The Graham Norton Show on Friday night, viewers took to social media to accuse the star of ripping off Shaggy’s 2000 hit record ‘It Wasn’t Me’, pointing out the resemblance in the melody of the two songs.

Writing on Twitter, unimpressed users shared:

The main resemblance seems to be in the catchy pre-chorus of ‘Strip That Down’, which is as follows:

“You know, I used to be in 1D (now I’m out, free)/ People want me for one thing (that’s not me)/ I’m not changing, the way, that I (used to be)/ I just wanna have fun and (get rowdy)/ One Coke and Bacardi (sippin’ lightly)/ When I walk inside the party (girls on me)/ F1 type Ferrari (6 gear speed)/ Girl, I love it when your body (grinds on me)”.

Meanwhile, the chorus of Shaggy’s song is:

“But she caught me on the counter (It wasn’t me)/ Saw me kissin’ on the sofa (It wasn’t me)/ I even had her in the shower (It wasn’t me)/ She even caught me on camera (It wasn’t me)/ She saw the marks on my shoulder (It wasn’t me)/ Heard the words that I told her (It wasn’t me)/ Heard the scream get louder (It wasn’t me)”.

Listen to the two tracks below:

However, it appears that isn’t just a very unfortunate coincidence, with eagle-eyed fans spotting that Shaggy is actually credited as one of the composers of the track, albeit under his real name Orville Burrell.

This means that the similarities between the two songs was no doubt a conscious decision made by everybody involved and the haters really should just give it a rest.

In short, Liam shouldn’t be expecting any kind of lawsuit from Mr. Boombastic over this one…

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