Kelis has accused Beyoncé and her team of stealing a sample of her music for the Renaissance album. In several posts uploaded to her social media, Kelis pointed out the 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 from her Instagram account Bounty and Full. “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 added in another post, “It’s not a collab, it’s theft.” When a fan expressed disgust with the purported theft, Kelis wrote back, “It’s ridiculous.”
Kelis has always been outspoken when it comes to being properly credited for her work. Speaking to The Guardian in 2020, she opened up about not being compensated for her work with The Neptunes.
“I thought it was a beautiful and pure, creative safe space, but it ended up not being that at all,” she said at the time. “I was told we were going to split the whole thing 33/33/33, which we didn’t do.” She added she was “blatantly lied to and tricked” by “The Neptunes and their management and their lawyers and all that stuff.”
The 42-year-old has been going through a tough time. In March, her husband and veteran photographer Mike Mora lost his battle with stage 4 stomach cancer at just 37 years old. Mora received the grim diagnosis in 2017 and was given just 18 months to live. Mora noted in one of his Instagram posts he started to get suspicious after experiencing some debilitating pain in his stomach last year.
Kelis Plots Comeback Single As Husband Reveals Stage 4 Stomach Cancer Diagnosis
“Loss of appetite,” he wrote. “Pain in my back also started to creep in…finally decided to do something about it. It was a bit late. But just in time.” Sadly, it wasn’t soon enough. Kelis was previously married to Nas and shares a son with him.
As for Beyoncé, Renaissance is still scheduled to arrive on Friday (July 29) despite the online leak earlier this week. The 16-track project includes credits from her husband JAY-Z, producer Hit-Boy and more.
Dang! I hate HATERS!! While Bey is working her a** off! Chic sitting at home doing nothing on a farm talking trash!! I wouldn’t even respond and give her that platform!! Bye Gurl!!
If she really did use her song without permission how is it hating?
She’s hating!! Everyone samples off everybody music it’s nothing new and the album haven’t been released yet.. I need to hear both songs to come to that conclusion.. Haven’t done nothing in over 10 years and here she is!!
And they get sued when they don’t clear the samples, how is that hard to understand? Lol. And it doesn’t matter if it’s been 10 years or 50 years, you can’t take something that’s not yours without permission.
Theft isn’t working.
Kelis has no say so. Pharrell and Chad wrote and produced the song, they have the final say. They have the publishing she didn’t write anything.
A verbal agreement is just as good as a contract, so if kelis was told they would split 33/33/33 then it doesn’t matter if she only wrote commas / periods / or question marks she has to get her cut
So what b!tch? You let Nas down!
Nobody cares about the Beyhive
Nas better watch himself now. Kelis gon be doing collateral damage to his bank account since she won’t be getting any royalties from the Queen now. Nas lost again!
Bringing Nas up for what bruh? How can Nas lose and dude pockets are deep? Shut up man. You sound ignorant!!!!
Pharell and the Neptunes made it, so they wouldn’t run it by you. That’s what happens when you don’t write your own shit. If you tried that shit with Prince back in the day, he’d be on your ass in a minute, and he always won because he did write, arrange, compose, and produce all of his own stuff. Kelis has no recourse because she does not. Music business used her up and the people still in the inner circle passed her work off to somebody else without putting her in the loop.
Broke ass has-been always popping up like a gremlin with her ugly ass. You don’t own those masters so you don’t get shit. Btw, milkshake was a stupid song.
What? Do you have morales? Do you really think Kelis is broke? How much money do you have in your pockets? Broke, child please! We all bet you are broke as a city bum.
Beyond music is trash! It is made for females. Complete pop trash!!!telling
Kelis probably should take this up with the producers, her label, old label or management. Because in this situation it seems someone has the rights to either her work or her name. If she owns that work she can rightfully take it to court and get compensated, if she doesn’t then it’s nothing to be done, but trying to go get ownership of your past work. But it is funny to me
that all these artist love to preach black beauty, essence, queen and king this and turn around and use the same tricks these labels in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s use. So they turn around and use the same tricks on people that look just like them.
Write your own music, own your publishing.. it’s a GOAT song but she doesn’t own it, point blank. She bring real stupid trying to get a bunch of other stupid people to back her up. Bey paid for the sample and she know who she paid like Jay-Z know he paid Searchlite publishing. Iykyk.
It’s not that simple and I don’t think she cares about who backs her because she knows she’s not winning that contest against
a bunch of brain washed celebrity worshiping people, that probably don’t believe Beyonce takes a number 2. I don’t think kelis is talented and I don’t like her music at ALL. But what she is bringing up is how shady the business is. Me personally I believe Beyonce was clueless until the album was almost released or already done. I believed if Beyonce knew Kelis name was going to have to appear on the credits of her album she would have been like let’s scrap that one.
You’re wrong. Everything Beyonce and Jay Z is always on the up and up. That’s why everyone loves them. They’re woke too and make moves without money being the primary objective.