Rihanna songwriter responds to plagiarism allegations

One of the songwriters behind Rihanna's new tune B**ch Better Have My Money has hit back at allegations he copied the track from an American rapper, suggesting the accusations were made out of jealousy.

Rihanna debuted the song during her performance at the iHeartRadio Music Awards last month (Mar15), and quickly found herself under attack online amid claims the single is a direct rip off of Texas MC Just Brittany's similarly named B**ch Betta Have My Money, which was posted on streaming service SoundCloud last summer (14).

The rapper blasted the Umbrella hitmaker on Twitter, claiming Rihanna had "jacked" her song, but the post was quickly deleted.

The R&B superstar has yet to comment on the striking similarities between the two tunes, but Bibi Bourelly, who co-wrote the track with Rihanna, Jamille Pierre and Travis Scott, has brushed off the allegations.

She tells Vibe.com, "You fight for something and actually put the work in, and sacrifice time, like your parents told you to do in order to be 'successful', just so when you finally reach a victory and it's time to celebrate, some obstacle is there to pull you back down again. But that's life, I guess.

"I don't want to bash anybody or be bitter or mean. I just want to be able to celebrate our victory. A lot of things change when one is granted success, random people pop up, and a lot of the adjustments are rough. My way of coping with them is through focusing on the things that I have accomplished and the things that are yet to come."