Singer Robin Thicke and his collaborators, Pharrell Williams and T.I., got off a preemptive strike against Marvin Gaye’s estate and Funkadelic. Thicke is suing to establish that his summer hit “Blurred Lines” is not a rip off of Gaye’s song “Got to Give it Up,” nor does it copy Funkadelic’s “Sexy Ways.”

Watch the Blurred Lines” Official Unrated Video on Vevo

The lawsuit says that “The basis of the Gaye defendants’ claims is that ‘Blurred Lines’ and ‘Got to Give It Up’ ‘feel’ or ‘sound’ the same,” but “Being reminiscent of a ‘sound’ is not copyright infringement. The intent in producing ‘Blurred Lines’ was to evoke an era.”

Meantime, George Clinton, Funkadelic’s former lead, has made it clear that he does not support any claims from Bridgeport Music and its head, Armen Boladian, concerning “Sexy Ways.” Clinton sent out a tweet on August 15th that said: “No sample of #Funkadelic’s ‘Sexy Ways’ in @RobinThicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ – yet Armen Boladian thinks so? We support @RobinThicke @Pharrell!”

Well, we can’t say we’re big fans of Robin Thicke, but this one does not appear to be as obvious as the Gaga/Madonna flap over “Born This Way”, or the Avril Lavigne “Girlfriend” case, and we would have to agree with George Clinton. If Marvin Gaye was still alive, he would be 74 years old. We think he would have liked “Blurred Lines” tremendously. He might even have an answer for the most important question: “What rhymes with hug me?”.