So the Black Eyed Peas have always been one of the worst “borrowers” in the music industry, but now member Will.I.Am has taken the cake. He took background music by Russian artist Arty & Mat Zo and let someone rap over it. Unfortunately for the original artist, he never had permission to use the music (nor was he paying any money for it). Now he’s claiming it happened by accident:
“Arty is a dope producer so I wrote this song to ‘Rebound’ this last year,” he said. “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.”
Hearing the original song reminded me of this fantastic piece of video-art, which, in contrast to everything the Black Eyed Peas have ever done, is hugely original and entertaining: