Business News Legal

Will.i.am accused of song theft. Again

By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 18 April 2013

Will.i.am is no stranger to accusations of song theft, so it’s perhaps of no surprise that almost as soon as his new album ‘#willpower’ began previewing on Vevo yesterday, such claims were being made about his new material.

Producer Quintino (and others) has noted similarities between a small portion of his track with Sandro Silva – ‘Epic’ – and Will.i.am’s ‘Bang Bang’. Though most controversy has surrounded the Black Eyed Pea’s next single, ‘Let’s Go’, featuring Chris Brown, which appears to lift Arty and Mat Zo’s track ‘Rebound’ pretty much in its entirety.

Following uproar from his fans, Zo said in a since edited Facebook update (captured in full by Dancing Astronaut) that he and Arty had been aware that Will.i.am was interested in their track but had declined to work with him. He added: “Producers often wait their whole career for someone to fuck up and sample their track without asking permission. Arty and I aren’t bitter, just surprised”.

Though whether or not permission had been asked for subsequently became a contentious matter (perhaps explaining the editing of Zo’s Facebook post). Another producer, Laidback Luke, claimed on Twitter that he’d had confirmation that, while the new Will.i.am track did indeed make use of Arty and Zo’s original, use of it had been fully cleared beforehand.

But Arty responded by saying that “there is no official licence agreement, signed contract or anything else between me, Mat Zo, [their label] Anjunabeats and [Will.i.am’s label] Interscope”.

As previously reported, Will.i.am may or may not also be in a legal tussle with Tulisa Contostavlos over her alleged though uncredited contributions to his single with Britney Spears, ‘Scream & Shout’.

Investigate the latest accusations of song theft for yourself here:

Arty & Mat Zo – Rebound

Will.i.am – Let’s Go

Quintino & Sandro Silva – Epic

Will.i.am – Bang Bang