Will.i.am has shared a statement in response to the ongoing controversy surrounding the DJ Megan Ryte track "Culture," which many have accused of being built upon a beat and general composition that’s strikingly similar to DJ Lag's 2017 song "Ice Drop."
In a video shared to Twitter and Instagram, the founding Black Eyed Peas member apologized to both artists and said that he was the person "at fault" for what he characterized as an example of submitting incorrect credits information for the song's release.
"I'm here to clear up the situation between the song 'Culture' and 'Drop Ice' by DJ Lag," will.i.am said, incorrectly naming the DJ Lag song in question. "First, I wanna take the time to apologize to Megan Ryte from the bottom of my heart. Megan, I am truly sorry for putting you in this situation and I want everyone to know that Megan doesn't deserve the hate you're throwing at her because Megan didn't do anything wrong."
Turning to the credits, will.i.am claimed he "tried to fix it" but it was too late.
"The person that's at fault is myself," he said. "When the song was turned in, I turned in the credit information to Megan and I obviously got the credit information wrong. And when I realized I made a mistake, I tried to fix it. And at that point in time it was already too late. So to that, I apologize to DJ Lag. DJ Lag, you're an awesome producer. You have an amazing future ahead of you and I'm so sorry for getting the information wrong."
The apology, however, hasn't been met with enthusiasm. Many have pointed out additional similarities between the two videos, will.i.am getting the name of the DJ Lag song wrong in his statement, and a lack of clarity on what will happen moving forward:
At the time of this writing, credits for "Culture" on Spotify list DJ Megan Ryte as the performer and Megan Designee as the writer. A production credit is not listed.
