Ariana Grande’s ‘7 Rings’ is drawing all kinds of allegations about copying

Ariana Grande’s most recent song, “7 Rings” – released with an accompanying video on January 17 – is an undeniable bop that celebrates consumer capitalism and is pretty much guaranteed to make you feel broke. It’s not only those of us that can’t comprehend ever seeing the end of student loan debt that have something to say about the new track, though; there’s also been allegations that Ari might have borrowed from other musicians a bit too closely for inspiration.

On Twitter, some users referred to side-by-side clips of the “7 Rings” video and the video for Soulja Boy’s “Pretty Boy Swag” from 2010, to claim that Ariana Grande ripped off his flow. There have also been a lot of commentary videos on YouTube making the same claims.

But that’s not enough controversy for one day on the internet, so other users were quick to point out more alleged copying, this time in the visuals of the video itself. “The video is plucked straight out of 2 Chainz’s pink trap house,” writes one user (and, admittedly, the aesthetic is pretty reminiscent of the pink pad’s exterior, though it could just as easily be coincidence, tbh).

Finally, Princess Nokia stepped into the debate, sharing a since-deleted video in which she reacts to “7 Rings”, saying: “Does that sound familiar to you? ‘Cause that sounds really familiar to me. Oh my god… ain’t that the little song I made about brown women and their hair? Hmm… sounds about white” (as reported by Consequence of Sound).

In the end, though, it’s pretty difficult to decide whether Ariana and/or her team intentionally “ripped off” any of these styles. As other Twitter users were quick to point out, the style and content of the song are pretty common.