Zayn Malik Caught in Middle of One Direction Fight With His New Record Producer

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Zayn Malik denied there was a rift between him and One Direction when he left the band last week, but the record producer he’s now working with has got one of Malik’s ex-bandmates fired up.

The trouble began on Monday when Naughty Boy – who Malik, 22, is working with on new music – retweeted a video that claimed “Naughty Boy saved ‘Zaughty’ ” and “Zaughty will rise.”

One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson obviously saw that as a slam and quickly responded on Twitter, writing, “Wow @NaughtyBoyMusic you’re so inconsiderate pal, seriously how f—ing old are you? Grow up! #masterofallwisdom.”

Then Naughty Boy replied, thinking that Louis was reacting to a Tweet that he’d sent out years ago, in which he wrote, “Louis, what a dick.”

“@Louis_Tomlinson calm down,” Naughty Boy Tweeted. “Was talking bout [British judge] Louis Walsh cuz he didn’t let someone through on x factor. Look @ the date of the tweet. #2014”

But Tomlinson, 23, clarified: “@NaughtyBoyMusic I was talking about the video you tweeted. Clearly trying to wind the fans up! Well you succeeded anyway. Fair play”

The music producer then wrote, “When ur getting hate for something u didn’t do, a bit of love can go a long way, that’s why I retweeted, time will tell the real story guys.”

Fans caught wind of the exchange and immediately began Tweeting about it, and the hashtags “masterofallwisdom” and “Zaughty” began trending. A number of fans also warned Naughty Boy not to mess with Tomlinson by sharing a gif of Tomlinson from the “Steal My Girl” video.

This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.com

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