Thanks to the Internet, the Writers of 'No Scrubs' Now Have a Credit on Ed Sheeran's 'Shape of You'
EntertainmentTLC’s 1999 hit “No Scrubs” gave us a brilliant, succinct way to describe loser “buster” men. Ed Sheeran’s 2017 single “Shape of You,” which at least one Jezebel staffer enjoys, simply gave us earaches. (Relax, it’s a joke!) Anyway, as so many astute music fans have observed, “Shape of You”—No. 1 in the country for the past seven weeks—kinda sounds like “No Scrubs.”
As a result, ASCAP has reportedly updated its database. “Shape of You” now includes songwriting credit for the writers of “No Scrubs”—Kandi Burruss, Tameka “Tiny” Harris (formerly of Xscape) and producer Kevin Briggs. The credit appears alongside the originally credited songwriters, Ed Sheeran, Steve Mac and Johnny McDaid. Tiny celebrated the addition on social media, as did Kandi.
What’s notable here is that regular people first noticed the melodic similarity and if not for the internet, it may well have gone uncredited or unnoticed. (Just check Twitter search for a backlog of comments.) What does this mean? That Kandi has even more to brag about next time a fake singer tries to get her in the studio on Real Housewives of Atlanta. Also, money. As Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes: