Utah songwriters sue singer Mary J. Blige

Two Utah-based songwriters have filed suit in U.S. District Court of Los Angeles accusing soul singer Mary J. Blige of copyright infringement.

The lawsuit, filed on Dec. 17, also names Blige's record label, Geffen Records, and its parent company, Universal Music and Video Distribution. The suit claims Jay Brian Ballard and Kim Jones, of West Valley City and West Jordan, respectively, wrote the lyrics and music to a song called "Take Me As I Am" and submitted it to various record companies in 1995.

In 2005, Blige released a similar version of the song on her multiplatinum-selling album "The Breakthrough."

Ballard and Jones are suing for profits from the recording of the song and an impoundment of all copies of "Take Me As I Am."

In addition, two New Jersey songwriters — Jermaine George Jumpp and Michael Clifton Adams Jr. — filed another suit against Blige on Dec. 19, which claimed the song "Enough Cryin'," which is also a track on Blige's album "The Breakthrough," was a reworking of the song "On My Grind," which they wrote and submitted in 2001 to a New Jersey-based producer.

The lawsuit, which also names hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, says the producer, Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, used the sequenced beat and cadence of "On My Grind."

Blige's representatives could not be reached for comment.

These are not the only lawsuits filed against Blige in recent months. Last August, representatives from New York-based Dream Family Inc. submitted a $2 million claim against Blige, producer Theron "Neff-U" Feemster and Geffen.

The suit said Feemster, who wrote the music for the song "Work That," found on Blige's 2007 multiplatinum-selling album "Growing Pains," didn't have full rights to the song, which apparently is held by Dream Family Inc.

Dream lawyer Brian Caplan told the New York Daily News in August that "Mr. Feemster created the music while he was under contract with Dream Family. Dream Family then owned the music, yet the music was used without permission in a Mary J. Blige release recording."

E-mail: scott@desnews.com

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