Ben Hemsley Calls Out Hugel And Matt Sassari For Copying Old Remix Of His

Explosive accusations have tinted the electronic music scene lately, made earlier this week by Newcastle producer Ben Hemsley. He called out French producers Hugel and Matt Sassari for plagiarizing a tech-house edit of Sonique’s 1998 classic ‘It Feels So Good‘ that he originally produced and uploaded to SoundCloud in 2017. While the Sassari and Hugel version — released in 2024 — has amassed over 166 million streams on Spotify, Hemsley alleges the track is a “blatant” copy of the structural ideas he pioneered as a 19-year-old up-and-comer, as he comments on a lengthy Instagram post he made regarding the matter. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ben Hemsley (@benhemsley_) The conflict highlights a recurring technical and legal friction point in electronic music: the status of the unofficial edit. Hemsley provided receipts on Instagram, showing side-by-side audio comparisons and tracklists proving that Matt Sassari had been playing Hemsley’s 2017 edit in his live sets for years. “There’s no excuse that he didn’t hear it“, Hemsley stated, noting that the scene is effectively “robbing an 8-year-old idea“. Despite the aesthetic similarities, the legal reality is stark. Because Hemsley’s 2017 version was an unlicensed bootleg, he possesses no copyright claim over the underlying Sonique composition. In contrast, Hugel and Sassari officially cleared the sample with Sonique’s rights holders, giving their version the “legal shield” of an authorized derivative work. This situation is being compared by industry insiders to the infamous “Eric Prydz vs. Steve Winwood” or “Will Atkinson vs. Steve Aoki” battles, where a larger artist officially licenses an idea first popularized by an underground bootleg. In the 2026 streaming economy, where a track’s length is often optimized for TikTok (Sassari’s version sits at a radio-friendly length), the “theft” of a production’s “vibe” or “swing” is becoming a common grievance. Hemsley has clarified that he does not intend to seek financial damages, calling the producers “balloons” and stating, “I thought, **** me, must be **** to rob an 8-year-old idea off of someone“. The post Ben Hemsley Calls Out Hugel And Matt Sassari For Copying Old Remix Of His appeared first on EDMTunes.