Will.i.am Says He Accidentally Stole a Song

Will.i.am admitted confusion today over whether he ever had the rights to use the backing track on his new song "Let's Go," featuring Chris Brown. Russian producer and DJ Arty had accused the Black Eyed Pea of stealing his song, "Rebound," on Twitter last week.

A comparison of the two songs confirms they are identical, and will.i.am tried to explain himself during a KIIS-FM interview on Tuesday.

"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."

But he said that after a year's time, "we preferred writing over and using the [original] rebound. Something happened and the clearance... hopefully we resolved the issue."

Arty claimed in Twitter posts on April 16 that no one from will.i.am's team had worked out a deal for the tracks through his label, Anjunabeats. "Let's Go" was uploaded to will's YouTube account on April 16, and has over 750,000 views and 14,000-plus comments already, many of them negative.

"He finally admitted it. On the day the album is released, of course. Go write this thief a review on iTunes," wrote "riotistx" in one of the video's top comments.

"Let's Go" is the fifth track off will.i.am's fourth studio album, "#willpower," out today. Arty and Mat Zo's "Rebound" was released in April 2011.