Beyoncé has a song on her new album Renaissance that appears to sample the music of Kelis. Kelis claimed that she had no idea that her music was going to be sampled.
She made comments online, saying, “My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all three parties involved is astounding. I heard about this the same way everyone else did. Nothing is ever as it seems, some of the people in this business have no soul or integrity, and they have everyone fooled. It’s not a collab; it’s theft.”
However, Kelis is not listed on the credits of the song in question, ‘Milkshake’, as a producer, composer or lyricist, but merely the performer. Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo and the Neptunes are the composers, producers and lyricists of the song.
Kelis called out the Neptunes in 2020, claiming that she did not make any money from her first two albums and felt tricked and betrayed by the Neptunes and their management and lawyers.
She said, “I was told we were going to split the whole thing 33/33/33, which we didn’t do. Their argument is: ‘Well, you signed it.’ I’m like: ‘Yeah, I signed what I was told, and I was too young and too stupid to double-check it.’”
Beyoncé’s Renaissance also sampled Robin S’ ‘Show Me Love’, although Robin S also claimed that she had no contact with Beyonce or her legal team over permission to use the sample. She had only learned about it because her son had told her it was “trending all over the place”. Robin S is also not listed as a songwriter on the track.
Although, now that the full credits of Beyoncé’s album have been released, it transpires that the track ‘Energy’ did not sample ‘Milkshake’ but merely interpolated it.
