One of the latest controversies to hit the EDM world revolves around superstar producer Will.I.Am blatantly stealing the majority of Arty an Mat Zo’s 2011 hit ‘Rebound’, and incorporating it into his latest single, ‘Lets Go’, which, if you didn’t already hate the song, also features Chris Brown. A side by side comparison of the song shows that it’s basically identical – like, this isn’t sampling, or homage. This is straight up Will.I.Am just rapping over Arty and Mat Zo’s beat.
Anjunabeats, the record label who represents Arty and Mat Zo, has finally issued an official statement on the matter, which can be seen below:
Anjunabeats has today issued a short statement regarding the infringement of copyright on the Will.i.am track “Let’s Go featuring Chris Brown”. Here it is in full:
Anjunabeats is the record label behind Arty and Mat Zo and owns the master recording rights to their collaboration “Rebound.” Mat Zo and Arty have been important members of the Anjunabeats family for a number of years and “Rebound” was one of the label’s most popular releases in 2011.
As has been widely reported, a large section of “Rebound” was sampled on Will.i.am’s track “Let’s Go featuring Chris Brown” and this took place without the permission of Anjunabeats or Arty & Mat Zo.
Although Arty (but not Mat Zo) was credited in the sleeve notes, this is not the same as obtaining permission. To present someone else’s work as your own, you need to seek permission, agree terms and file paperwork, which has not happened in this case.
We’ve remained silent on this issue until now but as a record label it is our obligation to protect our artists’ interests and we felt it was necessary to respond to some of the inaccuracies that have been reported following Will.i.am’s recent comments to Associated Press.
The comments to the Associated Press the statement is referencing are these:
“What do I know, I give it to legal. I’m not an attorney, I did my piece. I gave credit to the person who did it. It’s not my fault he didn’t tell me about the other guy. So who’s to blame? I don’t know I wasn’t in the room when you made it. You should have told me you had a collaborator.”
Will.I.Am seems to be referencing the fact that he gave credit to Arty in the album’s notes, but not Mat Zo. He then shifts blame onto Arty and Anjunabeats for not informing him of Mat Zo’s involvement on the track. But, as a producer, Will.I.Am should know that it’s not enough to simply credit a producer in the album notes – there’s the whole matter of, you know, compensating the original producers for their work.
Obviously, it’s easy to hate on Will.I.Am, as the dance community already looks down upon his involvement with the Black Eyed Peas and the ‘mainstreamification’ of that dance music scene. It all comes down to a simple concept – you cant take people’s music and not pay them. Even if you’re responsible for such classics as ‘My Humps’. You can check out a comparison video of the two songs below.