Will.i.am Admits To Ripping Off Song From Matt Zo And Arty

Will.i.am admitted to accidentally ripping off a house music dance track from artists Matt Zo and Arty. The track that the Black Eyed Peas front man apparently grabbed was for his new song, Let’s Go.

The song is actually a collaboration with Chris Brown. When it went online last week, Arty claimed that the singers had performed copyright infringement because of how similar Let’s Go was to his own work Rebound.

Will.i.am admits to using the song after originally remaining silent by saying “Arty is a dope producer so I wrote this song to ‘Rebound’ this last year.”

The Black Eyed Peas member went on to say that he had originally changed the tune enough for his own song that it really didn’t sound all that similar.

Something changed in the last year and he decided to go back to the original track. The Delorean driving rapper and singer then said that he thought the right people were contacted in order to get their permission to use music.

For their part, neither Arty, collaborator Matt Zo or Anjunabeats CEO Jono Grant say that they were ever contacted about sampling Rebound.

The group actually said that no one from Interscope, which is Will’s label had ever reached out to them about the song at all.

Arty said that they had heard the offending track once it was released to the general public. It doesn’t appear that the apology, or explanation of sampling the track has really been accepted or believed.

Chris Brown, who has largely managed to stay above the fray on this, claimed that he really didn’t have an opinion. Rihanna’s on again, off again boyfriend said that he doesn’t even listen to songs that he lends his vocals to anyway.

Since Will.i.am admits that he ripped off the track, what do you think of the situation?

[Image via Photo Works / Shutterstock.com]