South Africans gave meaning to the word UBUNTU when they stood for one of their own, DJ Lag, after he got ripped off by an American DJ. The Durban Gqom DJ's 2016 song Ice Drop got stolen by American DJ and radio presenter DJ Megan Ryte, who made a remake and named it Culture.
Unbeknownst to DJ Lag, his beats and production got plagiarized without his consent, and has taken legal action. After Mzansi noticed the similarities between the two songs, they were livid and that resulted in Megan Ryte deleting the song from YouTube.
At first, she turned off her comments section on Instagram where she shared a snippet from her video, she then turned off the comments on her YouTube where she posted the full video. The support Mzansi has shown to DJ Lag deserves a standing ovation. Megan's video got over 15 000 dislikes on YouTube just a few hours after it was posted. Feeling the heat, Megan removed the video from her YouTube.
In the song Culture, Megan features music icon Will.i.am and ASAP Ferg. Will.i.am from the popular group Black Eyed Peas issued out an apology on Megan's behalf, taking the blame for the "mishap" which occurred. In an IG video, Will.i.am apologised to both Megan and DJ Lag saying Megan is not at fault. He admitted that he was the one deserving of the hate because he got the credit information wrong.
"What’s up everybody, I’m here to clarify the situation between the song Culture and Drop ice by DJ Lag. First I want to take the time to apologise to Megan Ryte from the bottom of my heart. Megan, I’m truly sorry for putting you in this situation and I want everyone to know Megan does not deserve the hate you are throwing at her, 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. When I realised I made a mistake I tried to fix it and that point in time it was already too late, so I apologise to DJ Lag. DJ Lag you are an awesome producer, you have an amazing future ahead of you and I’m so sorry for getting the information wrong," said Will.i.am.
DJ Lag thanked Mzansi for standing up for him, on his social media he wrote, "I’m absolutely aware that South Africa has my back. The people's support has made this whole event manageable. I’m grateful to my people here at home and across the world and to all the media who chose to cover the truth."
However, he will not accept the half-baked apology from Will.i.am saying he felt it was directed at him.
