Will.i.am confesses to stealing dance producer's song - by accident

Arty is 'dope' says Will - after sample problem

Macy Gray. Long after everyone stopped caring, Will.i.am was producing her 2007 album, 'Big'. It was anything but.

Tuesday 23rd April 2013 by Michael Baggs

Will.i.am has admitted he 'stole' a track by two dance producers for a track on his new album, but claims he did so by accident because he was such a big fan of the original.

The '#thatPOWER' star admits he thinks that producer Arty is 'dope' after he used his track 'Rebound', despite not seeking official clearance to do so. Arty revealed what had happened on Twitter, but later asked fans to stop sending 'racist' abuse to Will.i.am and Chris Brown regarding the apparent song theft.

Now Will.i.am has admitted there were problems clearing the track and claims he has changed the production of the track in question, 'Let's Go'.

"So this song by Chris Brown 'Let's Go'. Arty is a dope producer so I wrote this song to rebound this last year," Will.i.am told KISS FM. "I got in touch with Arty and showed it to him, did a different version to it 'cause I asked him [to] make it newer 'cause I don't just wanna take your song and rap over it. But we did that, we collaborated.

"But in a year's time, time's gone by [and] we preferred writing over and using the [original] rebound. Something happened and the clearance… hopefully we resolved the issue," he added, before admitting that a collaboration had never taken place.

"No, I heard his 'Rebound' and then wrote a song to it and then contacted them last year. A year has passed and we're fixing it now," he said.

Will.i.am is currently judging The Voice UK for the second year (WENN)

Arty had previously written on Twitter, "They never cleared rights through Anjunabeats, who's only one label, who ownes the rights for 'Rebound'."

Chris Brown features on the Will.i.am track, and also defended himself over Twitter. The singer posted a series of tweets, saying, "I don't even know who mat zo Or arty is? I ain't got s**t to do wit if ur mad or not. Someone asked for a feature on a record and I did it."

He later deleted that tweet, but kept the follow-up of, "I don't listen to that s**t half the time anyway. #X"

Listen to the two tracks below