A while after Will.i.am’s much spoken about plagiarism of Arty and Mat Zo’s “Rebound”, Above & Beyond‘s imprint, Anjunabeats has just released an official statement on the fiasco. While it is established that Will.i.am credited Arty in the sleeve notes (but not Mat Zo), Anjunabeats attests that he did not receive permission to use the track.

After the story broke Will.i.am attempted to defend himself, claiming that Arty “knew about the sample beforehand”. Although Arty and Mat Zo acknowledged that they had been contacted by Will.i.am and knew of his interest in the track, they confirmed that they had “declined working with him at the time”.

Here is the official statement just released by Anjunabeats:

“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 artist’s 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.”

This comes after Mat Zo’s official statement on his Facebook account following him deleting his twitter account:

“(Im really glad I deleted my twitter account so that I’m not inclined to say what I’m about to say in under 140 characters)

I really and truely appreciate all the support you are giving me and Arty in response to Will I Am’s copyright infringement. However, this doesnt excuse the horrific abuse youre sending the way of Will I Am and Chris Brown, and it especially doesnt excuse being racist.”

As words and statements are exchanged it seems that Will.i.am now possibly is bound to be liable to compensate Anjunabeats with a sizeable amount but we can only wait to know the exact details and how this plagiarism war progresses. Stay tuned for updates!