In a new interview with the Associated Press, will.i.am clarified his stance on the allegations of stealing Arty & Mat Zo's "Rebound" for use on his new track, "Let's Go." Earlier this week, will.i.am said he was "sad" that this turned into a "fiasco," but in the above interview, he's basically washing his hands of the ordeal, saying that not only did he have confirmation via email that Arty was happy to have the tune used, but that he was unaware that Arty had used a collaborator (in this instance, Mat Zo), and that he "took care" of his end (the creative side), and now it was on legal. While DAD has not seen the CD version of #willpower, the updated Wikipedia page on #willpower just has "Let's Go" credited to will.i.am, Arty, and Chris Brown (who contributed vocals).
This situation is getting deeper the more will.i.am speaks on it. Was he really unaware that "Rebound" was also produced by Mat Zo? That's a possibility - but when legal was being taken care of, the lawyers would have spoke with Anjunabeats, right? Why would Anjunabeats not have informed them that Arty and Mat Zo had produced the track? That doesn't make sense at all. When it comes to giving producer credits and the like, are we being lead to believe that an excited email is all that's needed to give credit and release music? Or did will.i.am/Interscope want to finally release this long-delayed album come hell or uncredited producer?
As of the time of this post, neither Arty nor Anjunabeats have responded to this interview; we previously assumed that it was due to the legal side being hammered out, but who knows. Regardless, we'll keep you posted on any further developments.
