Beyoncé has removed the sample of the 2003 Kelis hit “Milkshake” from her recently released single “Energy” featuring Beam.
The “la la la” part from the 1:40-minute mark of the song is noticeably absent from the version available on Spotify, TIDAL, YouTube and Apple Music.
The move comes after Kelis vocalized how frustrated she was by not being informed it was even being used on the track. Taking to Instagram, the 42-year-old referred to it as “theft.”
“My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all 3 parties involved is astounding,” she wrote from her Bounty and Full account. “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.”
In two follow-up videos, Kelis accused Pharrell of sampling the song out of spite. Kelis and The Neptunes (the production duo of Chad Hugo and Pharrell) have a contentious history that dates back to the 2000s when they were producing a lot of her material including “Milkshake.”
“There’s a lot of hypocrisy and a lot of nonsense,” she said. “So we’ve got Pharrell who did an interview I think last year talking about artists rights and how how people should be able to rework their deals and artists should be getting credit for what they’ve done and all this stuff.
Kevin Durant Responds To Backlash Over Beyoncé 'Ableist' Lyric Removal
“When in reality, when I was signed to him, I had the same manager that he had and he has writing credits on my records, all my singles, and he never wrote a song, a lyric a day in his life. And yeah, that’s a problem.”
She later called it “a direct hit” and referred to Hugo as a “spineless amoeba.”
Beyoncé has faced multiple hiccups with Renaissance. Two days before its scheduled release date of July 29, it suffered an online leak. Once the album was finally out, some people took offense to the word “spaz” on the song “Heated,” calling it an “ableist” term.
Subsequently, Beyoncé and her team scrubbed the lyrics from the song, something Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant called a “joke.”
Lol, Kelis has bullied her way back into irrelevance. Congratulations!
Irrelevance? The fact you are here on this news page shows how relevant Kelis is. Kelis a an ICON, often imitated. You go listen to diluted versions of things she has inspired. GTFOH. I was at a recent festival seeing Kelis….she made the crowd go insane!!!! You are trippin
Nas said stop calling him, Kelis…
I’m tired of recycled music myself. I’m not against sampling but it just seems outdated and anti-creative at this point. The only samples I’m still feeling is like when alchemist samples half a song for some gangsta epic. I just want to hear new beats new melodies made from scratch now that the technology has made this very possible compared to even 5 years ago
The part that Beyoncé sampled was negligible, and the song that she ended up making sounded new and original. Kelis is just displacing her anger @ Pharrell on her
Shut the fuck up you Spam bitch!
Kelis is dumb. She should’ve embraced Beyonce using Pharrell and Interscope’s song. The younger generation, who never heard of Kelis, would’ve went back and search her music. But her hate and jealousy prevented her from seeing that. Beyonce probably would’ve put her own a remix. Smh
If she doesn’t want Beyonce using her song she has every right to object. Beyonce can’t afford original music? Obviously she doesn’t like Bey so she doesn’t care about exposure – she’s already famous
Kelis doesn’t own that song. If so, she should have sued Beyonce and Columbia Records. I’m sure the the people who have the rights to the song were compensated. She probably upset because she wasn’t compensated. Most likely she gave up her publishing and rights to her music when she got her advance from Interscope/Star Trak
She has publishing rights on the song, that’s why Beyonce took it off, right now she just would have hit her with a cease and desist but her frustration is not really with Beyonce it’s with pharrell and you would be surprised how many song/artist are sampled that are not compensated and don’t even know they’ve been used in a song. My ex does music licensing for a number of big name artists and i would point out samples used in songs and she’d be like they didn’t even submit it and didn’t know, a lot of producers don’t say anything and that’s who needs to turn in the list of samples and people they used in a song.
I’m sure Beyonce’s legal team made sure she got a compulsory license for the beat
An artist doesn’t have a monopoly over his or her music. If someone wants to use an artist’s music, the artist have to allow it
She doesn’t. Go look at the original album. Says written by Pharell Williams and Chad Hugo. She explained this in her original rant. Kind of funny she’s mad at Pharell and didn’t bring up the other half of the Neptunes because obviously she doesn’t have a beef with him when he had to give the green light too. Wonder why that is, but then she tried to say it was about courtesy and this and that. It’s not. It’s about they blew up and I didn’t. They’re stars, and I didn’t make it.
If they stars then why copy her shit period…make it make sense…if you the so called queen which she ain’t than why can’t you do your own shit period
Doja Cat sampled the same song a couple of years ago. Wonder why she didn’t have a rant about it. Actually, the song has been sampled like 40 times. For some reason this is the first time she lost her shit….because it was with someone who blew out of the same era when she was trying to. At the end of the day, if you can’t see that that’s all this is about, I can’t help you. And if you think sampling is copying, I can’t help you either.
Also, Beyonce can used the beat if she wants. I’m sure she got a compulsory license to use the beat.
yeah, she goes through the proper channels for publishing. Her sampling Vybz Cartel is what took care of the majority of his legal expenses.
Beyoncé can afford to make something original and that’s what she did. The part that Kelis is complaining about is an interpolation in a 10 sec part that if you sneezed you would miss. Kelis is displacing her anger at Pharrell towards Beyoncé
Beyoncé can afford to make something original and that’s what she did. The part that Kelis is complaining about is an interpolation in a 10 sec part that if you sneezed you would miss. Kelis is displacing her anger at Pharrell towards Beyoncé. I suspect Bey really took her off, because now at this point Kelis is just making personal attacks on her and Rihanna
Bitch stfu you if she could afford it she wouldn’t have copied Kelis from jump. Just off Beyonce dick fr y’all be acting like y’all know them personally
ITS ALMOST ENTERTAINING LISTENING TO NON-CREATIVES SPEAK ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE’S ART FROM A COSPLAY BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE.
In this episode of Fucking Up The Bag we have 2003 and one hit wonder Kelis.
Wrong! Kelis has classics and you know it! Such haters. Kelis is a true artist speaking her mind. Stop trying to bash her. Bad karma!
I suspect Bey really took her off now, because now at this point Kelis is just making personal attacks on her and Rihanna
B still gon get a check cut. That shows a lot of willingness to respect other people and artists
Beyonce still lame money ain’t everything
Now no one will go stream your forgettable song from 20 years ago to see where it came from. Good move Kelis.
Forgettable? Are you kidding me. I was in the club only yesterday and they’re still spinning Milkshake. It’s a CLASSIC. Who are you trying to kid? GTFOH!
They spin a lot of wack shit. That’s what makes it forgettable.