Dr. L’Antoinette Stines, a Jamaican multi-hyphenate, has filed a lawsuit against Beyoncé and JAY-Z for using her vocals on their song “Black Effect.”
According to CNN and TMZ, the veteran dancer/choreographer is suing The Carters for copyright infringement and violating her right of publicity over the cut from 2018’s EVERYTHING IS LOVE album, which received a perfect rating from HipHopDX. Stines, who is heard on the track’s opening speech, claims she was never given credit or compensation for her contribution to “Black Effect.”
She alleges Beyoncé and Hov asked her to record an interview about her views on love but said it would only be used for promotional purposes. After hearing her words used for the first minute of the song, she notes she felt “violated.”
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The lawsuit says Stines was recruited by The Carters to provide dancers for a promotional video in March 2018. She admits she signed a contract for her services on the day of the shoot but didn’t have an opportunity to have a lawyer review it.
Reps for Beyoncé and JAY-Z allegedly told Stines not to worry because it was just a “standard document that everyone had to sign.” But when she says when she asked if she could send a photo of the contract to her son, who’s a lawyer, she was “explicitly told that she could not send a picture of the agreement to anyone to review.”
Stines is seeking a writing credit and the royalties that come with it for her speech on “Black Effect,” which appears on an album that was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2019. She’s also asking for an unspecific amount in damages.
Revisit The Carters’ “Black Effect” below.
Hey let’s talk down about Jay Z and Beyonce as if we’re better or nearly as talented! (all the racist white weirdos in the comment section)
Where do you see the talent within these two bozos ?
That chick stole her words from me. I’m finna sue all of them!
On the face of it, the content of the contract she signed is all that really matters. Unfortunately for her, in most cases the law does not leave room to vary the terms of a signed and fully executed contract in retrospect. The courts are also normally cautious to create precedence for such actions to be taken because of the snowball effect it creates for them. Their reasoning is, doing so promotes negligence and absolves people of their responsibility to seek legal assistance before entering into contracts. Dr. Stines only saving grace would be an error by way of an illegality in the way the contract was drawn up by Jay and B’s legal team or an outright breach of the law. It’s also clear that the interview was not protected by a copyright at the time they had it so that doesn’t work in her favour either. Jay and B probably pay top dollar for their legal representation so chances are they would’ve already done their homework on these issues. I may be wrong, it seems that there may not be much to talk about here.
The Bottom line is Dr. Stines was absolutely taken advantage of, the Carters know it and so do they’re high end entertainment lawyers.
If Dr. Stines can unequivocally prove it is a song she co-wrote the lyrics to then any stand up entertainment lawyer would represent her in a heartbeat and would slam dunk a win including unspecified damages because back up dancers, singers, etc are extremely
happy to be considered part of the self titled (Diva) Beyonce can definitely sing, it is her attitude of truly believing she is part of the most elite crowd in the world. Maybe she even changed Jay-Z because he used to be so laid back as fuck. Have you seen how she parades their daughter Blue Ivy around in public, it is sending such an ignorant message. Howard Stern said it best one morning on
his show when he said, Beyonce might be an attractive woman to some, yet her ass looks like she is hiding a bunch of new born puppy dogs back there, LMFAO! Dr. Stines sue the Fuck out of them and expose them to the world they cannot just pirate, steal material because of their net worth or popularity!
It’s not an easy win by any means like you say it is! Please don’t mislead anyone including yourself that that’s the case in this matter! Remember, the onus of proof is on Dr. Stines to prove that she was taken advantage of not Jay and B. For all we know she could’ve signed away the usage of her speech in the song in the contract. This is why people are advised to handle their contracts through their lawyers when making deals in business. Sadly for her, it was an after thought. I’m not saying Jay and B are perfect by any means, I’m merely saying that what they did is smart business.
Wait…. Blacks steal???
Yes , but you can’t say it to loud because the Knights of Soros will come for you when you least expect it .
ewe are we supposed to get off on that or something.
Didn’t Jay sue that Australian children book author for copyright? Paybacks a bitch
Bet money they’ll claim it was an excerpt used in the form of review to circumvent having to pay her even though they have over a billion between them now.
The song sucks.