New Black Eyed Peas Song rips off Deadmau5?

The song in question:

 <-Black Eyed Peas - The Time (dirty bit)

from HouseMusicEssentials.com:
"Well Deadmau5 probably won’t sue the Black Eyed Peas because he doesn’t really give a shit if they sampled the beat from one of his tracks, but either way people need to learn how to sample properly. If you sample someone else, you either cover it up really well so it is almost unnoticeable or you pay the original producer. The Black Eyed Peas, the smart fellows that they are, decided to use the same hihat and arrangement as Medina- You & I (Deadmau5 Remix) which was so noticeable that the clever Mau5 picked up on it very quickly after some fans pointed it out:


“i’ve been getting a few tweets on and off about Black Eyed Peas’s new single “The Time” that more or less said… heyy sounds like you ish… So… i went and checked it out, at first listen… i was like… naaahhh i mean, it’s cool for what it is and all that… and doesnt really sound much like me at all. but then i heard a highhat… and something just clicked.”

I find this hilarious, a lot of producers sample, I mean the foundation of house music is essentially stealing sounds from other songs. Many tracks today have samples from some of the first house tracks, which is just awesome. But when someone like the Black Eyed Peas use the exact same beat as Deadmau5′ track, its bound to lead to some sort of controversy:

“This isnt calling the black eyed peas out at all. i rather enjoy that minimal bit of the tune… (however the 80′s remake vocals can fuck off and die) This is just another interesting factoid i keep finding about sampling and electronic music… which is clearley prevalent and welcomed (when used properly) in this genre of music no doubt!”

He basically just laughed it off and said fuck it, which is why I respect Deadmau5. He is big enough that this probably happens on a daily basis with much smaller producers. He opened both tracks up in Ableton and compared waveforms, which further proved that they sampled his track:

Deadmau5's live reaction:

THiCK Thoughts:

Deadmau5 is the 13-year-old girl of the online electronic world. No one can say he's not a talented producer, he has absolutely innovated house music and has been on top of the game for years. But he needs to delete his twitter, facebook, and pretty much any non-music oriented application on his computer and stop bitching, starting fan feuds, and talking shit to other producers via the internet.

As far as the logistics of Will I Am "stealing" or "sampling" his song.... naw, not legitimate. Not legitimate for the following reasons:

1.) The Ableton waveforms shown in the article are percussion one-shot hits (of a kick drum and high hat). First off, under close examination i don't think they're the same waveforms. Granted they're not exactly the same because of different warping/effects/intensity levels, but I still don't think they're the same mathematically-equivalent waveforms. And second, Deadmau5 released a percussion package (Deadmau5 XFer or something like that) online, at loopmasters I think, and its available for purchase. Its pretty expensive, but its chalked full of every kind of analog and effected percussion hits. However, once this package is legally purchased, the consumer then has rights to use and distribute such sounds in productions. Should this actually ever go to court, a lawyer could argue either of these points and get the case thrown away.

2.) This is electronic music, particularly 4 on the 4 house music. It all uses a variety of similar synths and beat textures. When songs do not have lyrics, are produced in similar programs, and use similar instruments and effects, guess what?....you're gonna run across plenty of very similar sounding songs. Besides this point, maybe it is a straight sample - for electronic music (and hip-hop and pop) sampling is becoming an extremely prevalent part of making catchy productions. So even if the B.E.P.'s did take a straight sample (which it doesn't sound like to me), Deadmau5 should be flattered, not all cocky about it. I think he's just pissed that the Black Eyed Peas song is making serious money (used in 2 commercials already) and starting to incorporate more traditional house influence into their main-stream productions.

Feel free to comment up with your thoughts. I've just been a little salty towards deadmau5 recently, and this article gave me an opportunity to rant.