Upstanding gentlemen Chris Brown and will.i.am accused of plagiarizing their new track
Upstanding gentlemen and independent thinkers will.i.am and Chris Brown have been accused of plagiarizing a new song. The track, “Let’s Go,” was one of several from will.i.am’s new record, willpower, uploaded to his YouTube page yesterday, and features guest vocals from Brown. It also may or may not rip off another song, “Rebound,” made by well-known house producers Arty and Mat Zo.
Damningly, the songs do sound quite a bit like each other, and Zo claims will.i.am approached the duo about using the song before, but the pair declined. Arty says that the rights for the song were never cleared through its label, Anjunabeats.
Brown, always the charmer, tweeted that he doesn’t even know who Zo or Arty are, and says he “ain’t got shit to do wit if ur mad or not.” In his mind, “someone asked for a feature on a record and I did it.” Besides, house music isn’t for him. He doesn’t “listen to that shit half the time anyway.” He then tweeted the phrase “#staypositive,” which, as Uproxx points out, probably isn’t a Hold Steady reference.
Perhaps anticipating a big future payout, Zo took to his Facebook to say he's glad his fans are angry, but that they don't "need to defend me or Arty," saying "producers often wait their whole careers for a commercial act to fuck up and sample their track without asking permission."