Beyoncé has been called out by songwriter Tiffany Red over publishing royalties paid out by the superstar.
In a lengthy video posted online, Red criticized a number of artists for taking songwriting credit where she claims it wasn’t deserved.
The Grammy-winning songwriter criticized the likes of Zendaya, Tamar Braxton and Sevyn Streeter for taking a percentage of publishing on songs they didn’t write or produce.
Red then took aim at Beyoncé for similar practices.
“The reason I called out Beyoncé is because Beyoncé is the Michael Jackson of our generation,” she said. “I talked to somebody yesterday who’s the manager of somebody who’s a writer and producer on Renaissance. The record is one of y’all faves. The song was written six years before it got to Beyoncé. She got 25 percent of the song.
“I spoke to another writer who wrote and sang on one of y’all favorite songs. Credit not right, his business all fucked up. Beyoncé was on tour last year with that record with that person’s vocals.”
Tiffany Red, who has worked with the likes of Cassie and Jennifer Hudson, added: “The reason why people who work for Beyoncé don’t talk is they’re all on NDA’s. Because that’s how she works. She silences people so that nobody can speak.”
She also wrote on X: “My hope is that on Act ll @Beyonce will #PaySongwriters a songwriter fee and master points and not take publishing or songwriting credit on any songs she did not write.”
HipHopDX has reached out to Beyoncé’s team for comment but has not yet received a response.
Kelis previously called out Beyoncé for similar reasons.
In several posts uploaded to social media in 2022, Kelis pointed out that Bey’s Renaissance song “Energy” contained pieces of her 2003 hit “Milkshake” and maintained she was never asked for permission.
“My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all 3 parties involved is astounding,” she wrote. “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.”
She also directed her frustration at Pharrell, who produced “Milkshake” alongside his Neptunes production partner Chad Hugo.
“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.
“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.”
The “Milkshake” sample was later removed from “Energy,” although Beyoncé did not publicly comment on Kelis’ allegations.
It’s a dirty game!
Calling out the artist who has no idea who the person is who wrote the song before it got to them versus the corporation that you work through and know ultimately has the power. SMH. Guess Beyonce is a publishing company now too.
We done seen your comments on B and Jay here for long enough to know that you would defend them no matter what type of foul shit they did
I absolutely believe this young lady. She is far from the first to bring up Bey’s songwriting skills and practices. And that saying “where there is smoke there is bound to be fire” seems to fit here.
Public image is not the same as a persons character.
You mad at the artists when you should be mad at the folks that is shopping your songs….