Megan Ryte accused of ripping off DJ Lag on song featuring will.i.am
DJ, radio host and TV personality Megan Ryte has been accused of plagiarising from DJ Lag on new track ‘Culture’ which features A$AP Ferg and will.i.am.
Since the release, people on Twitter have been pointing out the similarity between Ryte’s beat and DJ Lag’s 2016 gqom single ‘Ice Drop’, with South African DJs and music fans urging people to dislike the video on YouTube.
Now having racked up over a million views, the comments have been turned off underneath the video and there are currently 18k dislikes to its 1k likes.
The video begins with a dictionary definition of the phrase “culture vulture”, writing: “A person or an organization making profit using honorable practices from a culture they do not care for.”
“I hope DJ Lag legal team are some powerhouses…that is such a direct rip off Ice Drop..horrendous. They stay biting the motherland,” KG posted on Twitter.
Listen to both tracks below.
UPDATE (26/11/20): Will.I.Am has posted an apology video stating that he, not Megan Ryte, is responsible for the situation.
In the video, he says: “I’m here to clear up the situation between the song ‘Culture’ and ‘Drop Ice’ by DJ Lag. First I wanna take the time to apologise to Megan Ryte from the bottom of my heart … because Megan didn’t do anything wrong.
“The person that’s at fault is myself. When the song was turned in, I turned in the credit information to Megan. And I obviously got the credit information wrong. And when I realised I made a mistake I tried to fix it. And at that point in time it was already to late.
“So to that, I apologise to DJ Lag. DJ Lag, you’re an awesome producer, you have an awesome future ahead of you. And I’m so sorry for getting the information wrong.”
