AceShowbiz -

In the ongoing controversy surrounding his collaboration track "Let's Go" with Chris Brown, will.i.am has spoken yet again to defend himself against allegations that he ripped off producers Arty & Mat Zo's dance track "Rebound" to come up with his new single. The 38-year-old songwriter/record producer said he's unfairly being accused of stealing the song's beat since it was all done with the prior notification.

The Black Eyed Peas frontman said that after hearing the 2011 track "Rebound", he reached out to Arty with an invitation to collaborate made via email, to which the Russian trance producer favorably responded to. will.i.am also properly credited him as a writer on "Let's Go" as indicated on the liner notes of his new "#willpower" album.

Thus, it was a bit disappointing to him when he learned that Arty had written on his Facebook page that he "never cleared rights through Anjunabeats, who's only one label, who owns [sic] the rights for 'Rebound'." will.i.am said his legal team had been working on the licensing issue but blamed the slow legal clearance process for the misunderstanding.

will.i.am also confessed he was not aware that Arty had worked with another producer on "Rebound" which he feels rightfully absolves him from not crediting Mat Zo in his album. "You can't steal if you credited somebody," he insisted. "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."