The record label that owns the master rights to the song Rebound – allegedly sampled by Will.i.am for his new track with Chris Brown, Let’s Go – has made a public statement on the matter.

Will.i.am ackowledged last week that he had used Rebound, originally recorded by Arty and Matt Zo, as the basis for his collaboration, which appears on his new album #willpower.

The artist credits Russian DJ Arty in his sleeve notes, and told the Associated Press this week: “You can’t steal if you credited somebody. He and I communicated. … It’s not my fault he didn’t tell me about the other guy. So who is to blame? I didn’t know.”However, in a statement sent to Music Week, Arty’s UK label Anjunabeats said today:

Anjunabeats is the record label behind Arty and Mat Zo and owns the master recording rights to their collaboration “Rebound.” Mat Zo and Arty have been important members of the Anjunabeats family for a number of years and “Rebound” was one of the label’s most popular releases in 2011.

As has been widely reported, a large section of “Rebound” was sampled on Will.i.am’s track “Let’s Go featuring Chris Brown” and this took place without the permission of Anjunabeats or Arty & Mat Zo.

Although Arty (but not Mat Zo) was credited in the sleeve notes, this is not the same as obtaining permission. To present someone else’s work as your own, you need to seek permission, agree terms and file paperwork, which has not happened in this case.

We’ve remained silent on this issue until now but as a record label it is our obligation to protect our artists’ interests and we felt it was necessary to respond to some of the inaccuracies that have been reported following Will.i.am’s recent comments to Associated Press.

Meanwhile, the management company for Mat Zo, Involved Management, has confirmed that US label Astralwerks has signed the young British producer for North America.

2013 will see him release his debut artist album on Astralwerks (Anjunabeats in the UK) – which will cover everything from glitchy hip-hop and electronica to UK garage and big room club bangers. May 7th, 2013, will see the US release of Mat Zo and Porter Robinson’s collaboration, “Easy”.

Source: Music Week