Katy Perry sued by Christian artist for stealing 'Dark Horse' song

ST. LOUIS, Miss., July 2 (UPI) -- Christian rapper Flame is suing pop-singer Katy Perry for reportedly appropriating one of his gospel songs and turning it into a pagan, black-magic-infused track.

Court documents filed by the rapper, whose real name is Marcus Gray, accuse Perry of basing her hit single "Dark Horse" in Flame's award-winning track "Joyful Noise."

The suit, filed by Flame and others in St. Louis Tuesday, claims that the 29-year-old singer not only infringed on the copyright of the song, by that she also "irreparably tarnished [it] by its association with the witchcraft, paganism, black magic, and Illuminati imagery evoked by the same music in 'Dark Horse.'"

"Joyful Noise" was written in 2007 and released in 2008, Perry's "Dark Horse" was released in December 2013. The song appears as being written by Perry, Jordan Houston, Lukasz Gottwald, Sarah Hudson, Max Martin and Henry Walter. The suit names all of them as well as Perry's record label, Capitol Records.

The plaintiffs are suing Perry for damages and demanding that she stop using their music immediately. Reps for the singer had no comment regarding the lawsuit.

Last year the "Birthday" singer faced a similar controversy after multiple fans complained that her track "Roar" was a rip-off of Sara Bareilles' coming out anthem, "Brave."

"Dark Horse" was the third single of Perry's fourth studio album, Prism.