Will.i.am Admits Copyright Infringment

Will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas has admitted to using music from Arty and Mat Zo’s track “Rebound” for his recent collaboration with Chris Brown, “Let’s Go” – but it’s unclear if it is copyright infringement or a gross misunderstanding.

Photo: AP Photo / PA Wire
Hackney Weekend 2012, Hackney Marshes, London, UK

Arty and Mat Zo are two DJs beginning to gather attention, with Mat Zo having recent chart success with “Easy,” a collaboration with Porter Robinson.

When “Let’s Go” launched, and it included music uncannily similar to “Rebound,” Arty took to Twitter:

Mat Zo also questioned the comparison, then promptly deleted his Twitter account.

For his part, Mat Zo posted the words “Will I’m not” on his Facebook page, followed by, “Arty and I are not bitter about this, more surprised. We knew will.i.am was interested in this track, but declined working with him at the time.”

That was followed with a request to his fans to not troll the social media accounts of will.i.am and Chris Brown.

“I really and truly appreciate all the support you are giving me and Arty in response to will.i.am’s copyright infringement,” he said. “However, this doesn’t excuse the horrific abuse you’re sending the way of will.i.am and Chris Brown, and it especially doesn’t excuse being racist.”

Chris Brown responded in Chris Brown style:  “I don’t even know who Mat Zo or Arty is? I ain’t go s**t to do wit if ur mad or not. Someone asked for a feature on a record and I did it. … I don’t listen to that s**t half the time anyway… ‘#staypositive.”

Will.i.am appeared to have gone into radio silence for a while, but emerged with an interview on KISS-FM, saying this was all a matter of miscommunication and is now “fixing” the song.

“Arty is a dope producer so I wrote this song to ‘Rebound’ this last year,” he said. “I got in touch with Arty and showed it to him, did a different version to it ’cause I just wanna take your song and rap over it. But we did that, we collaborated.

“But in a year’s time, this gone by (and) we preferred writing over and using the [original] ‘Rebound’ and then wrote a song to it and then contacted them last year. A year has passed and we’re fixing it now. … Hopefully we’ve resolved the issue.”

Arty and Matt Zo had not commented at press time.

This is not the first time Will.i.am or the Black Eyed Peas have been accused of lifting intellectual property.

British singer/songwriter Tulisa is said to be suing for royalties for the song “Scream & Shout,” according to U.K.’s The Sun. A band called Freeland claimed their song “Mancry” was used for BEP’s “Party All The Time” without permission. Even Daft Punk apparently became upset when will.i.am used one of their songs for his single “I Got It From My Momma.”

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