The leader of the Black Eyed Peas, will.i.am, admitted in an interview with KISS FM that he breached the copyright for his new song with Chris Brown, "Let Go." He stole the original track "Rebound" by DJs Arty and Mat Zo.

Will.i.am's admission arrives just a week after Arty wrote "LOL what" on Twitter after he saw the song on YouTube. Arty continued, saying, "They never cleared rights through Anjunabeats, who's only one label, who ownes [sic] the rights for 'Rebound'." 

The explanation will.i.am provided KISS FM was that he'd made a mistake. He'd originally recorded his own version of "Rebound" for use on the Chris Brown song, "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."

Will.i.am says he's contacted the rights owners and that a deal is being negotiated. But the original composers of the song, DJs Arty and Mat Zo, had already declined the song's use after will.i.am approached them about it earlier. Zo wrote on Facebook, "We knew Will.i.am was interested in this track, but we declined working with him at the time."

But even after Will.i.am admits stealing the song to KISS FM, he didn't sound very contrite about the matter, believing since he's a fan of their work, they should be proud of what they've offered him to use in the studio. He wrote the track with their music in mind, and they should feel proud of that fact, instead of seeking compensation afer he stole their song. 

"I'm a fan of Arty. I think he's great and the world needs to know about how talented those guys are. It's sad that it's turned into a fiasco, but hopefully it's resolved, because I'm a fan of those guys to the point where I wrote to their instrumental."

The extent of his apology follows the same path a lot of illegal music downloaders use: I'm a fan of your music, so why should I have to pay for it? But will.i.am is himself a musician and has to understand the time DJs Arty and Mat Zo put into constructing their own songs. This one song, "Rebound," will.i.am had already approached them about using before getting turned down. Just because will.i.am's a fan, doesn't excuse the fact he used their track illegally for this own creation with Chris Brown.