Tresa Baldas

Detroit Free Press

Oh, no, you didn't.

That's what an Ohio man is saying to Detroit's hip-hop duo Insane Clowne Posse in a new lawsuit that claims one of its members stole his touchy-feely poem about a boy and his distant father — and passed it off as his own on YouTube.

The poem is called "But You Didn't," and ICP's Violent J. didn't have the right to pretend it was his, says a copyright lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, where the face-painted artist is accused of swiping a poem that was published in "Chicken Soup for the Soul."

It's hardly the kind of reading material that fans would associate with the edgy artist, if his dark lyrics and stage name are any indication.

But according to the lawsuit filed by Ohio poet Stanley Gebhardt, ICP member Joseph Bruce — a.k.a. Violent J. — recited Gebhardt's copyrighted poem verbatim on YouTube and titled it "Violent J's Poem." The 22-line poem is an emotional conversation between a boy and a father who is never around. The plaintiff said he had it copyrighted in 1993 and it has since appeared in "A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul." It was also engraved on a veteran's memorial sculpture in North Merrick, N.Y.

It starts like this:

"I looked at you and smiled the other day I thought you'd see me, but you didn't.

"I said I loved you and waited for what you'd say I thought you'd hear me, but you didn't."

Since it was posted nine years ago, the poem has picked up more than 20,000 views, with many viewers praising Violent J with comments like, "Oh my god this is the saddest thing," "Damn, I am in (expletive) tears" and "Goosebumps. As expected from violent J."

But it wasn't Violent J who wrote it, the lawsuit states, and he needs to take it down and pay up.

"It's a verbatim rendition of my client's artistic, copyrighted poetic work," said Detroit attorney Michael Dezsi, noting Gebhardt didn't discover the YouTube posting until 2015.

Soon after, the plaintiff sought legal help from a lawyer in Ohio, who eventually reached out to Dezsi and the lawsuit followed. Dezsi said that several YouTube viewers expressed surprise at the sentimentality of the poem and said things like, "'We didn't know he had this in him."

"That's because it's not his," Dezsi said of the poem. "But he put it out as Violent J's poem."

The Hertz Schram law firm, which is representing ICP in a pending civil rights lawsuit in federal court, said it had not yet seen the copyright suit and couldn't comment on it.

ICP has not yet been served with the lawsuit. The group's publicist was not readily available for comment.

Under copyright laws, the plaintiff may be entitled to up to $150,000 for each willful violation, or he can potentially seek profits that could have been made off the poem. Dezsi said it is not yet known if ICP made money off the poem.

ICP, meanwhile, is not new to the courts. It is embroiled in a pending lawsuit in which ICP is suing the FBI, claiming the agency unfairly targeted the group's fans and labeled them as gang members. A 2011 FBI report said the group's fans — known as Juggalos — are a "loosely organized hybrid gang."

ICP filed a lawsuit over the labeling. A federal judge dismissed the case in 2014, concluding the group didn't prove "injuries suffered."

But the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling and ordered the lower court to hear the case.

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com