ENTERTAINMENT: Beyoncé Apparently Removed An Unauthorized Kelis Sample From “Renaissance” In An Update

Beyoncé Apparently Removed An Unauthorized Kelis Sample From “Renaissance” In An Update. Beyoncé recently updated her seventh album, “Renaissance,” with the removal of an interpolation of Kelis’ 2003 hit “Milkshake” from the track “Energy.”

Shortly after the release of “Renaissance” on Friday, July 29, Kelis claimed on social media that Beyoncé had stolen parts of “Milkshake” without her express consent. She claimed that Beyoncé’s team had not contacted the singer to inform her that her song would be referenced and that Pharrell Williams, who co-wrote and produced “Milkshake” with Chad Hugo as The Neptunes, would have cleared the interpolation as a “direct hit” at her.

The “la la la la” refrain that first appears around the 30-second mark of “Milkshake” is interpolated into the original version of “Energy.” Indeed, the song’s interpolation of “Milkshake” was acknowledged in the “Energy” official credits, which also gave Williams and Hugo writing credit. Although Kelis was referred to as having “performed” the interpolated song, The Neptunes were listed as the song’s writers, not her.

Beyoncé Apparently Removed An Unauthorized Kelis Sample From “Renaissance” In An Update. Notably, Kelis was never credited as a songwriter on “Milkshake” to begin with. Although Kelis hasn’t formally addressed this aspect of the debate, she called Williams out for allegedly claiming credit for songs that weren’t his in one of the videos she posted last week.

“When I was signed to [Williams’ label, Star Trak], I had the same manager that he had, and he has writing credits on my records – all my singles, coincidentally – and he never wrote a song [or] a lyric,” she said.

Energy has now been updated on Tidal and Apple Music to remove the “Milkshake” interpolation from the song altogether.

As noted by Rolling Stone, this wasn’t a particularly easy process: for a short while, Tidal glitched and would only play the vocal clip that was removed when listeners attempted to stream the song.

At the time of writing, the original version of “Energy” can still be heard in the song’s official lyrics video and on Spotify.

Listen to the older version below, then contrast it with the new one on Apple Music:

This is the second major change that’s been made to ‘Renaissance’ this week: on Monday (August 1), it was confirmed that an ableist slur would be removed from the song ‘Heated’. Similar to a recent controversy with Lizzo’s song ‘Grrrls’ (which was also amended shortly thereafter), Beyoncé caught flak for using the word “spaz” in one of the song’s lyrics.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9rk6ldyFkA?feature=oembed]

While used colloquially in the United States with a similar meaning to “freak out” or “go crazy”, the term emerges from the word “spastic”, which is used medically to describe the spasms one might experience from a condition like cerebral palsy. The term is often used in a derogative manner to describe those with disabilities, especially cerebral palsy.

Following the backlash, Beyoncé’s publicist confirmed that the offensive lyric in ‘Heated’ would indeed be altered. When streaming the song on Apple Music, all uses of the slur have been replaced with the word “blast”.

In a four-star review of ‘Renaissance’, NME’s Kyann-Sian Williams said Beyoncé’s latest album “continue[s] leading the charge to bring Black culture back to the forefront of house and dance scenes”.

It’s also been revealed that the album is part of a forthcoming trilogy. A fan who received a vinyl copy of the album shared an image from its accompanying booklet, wherein Beyoncé describes ‘Renaissance’ as the first of a “three act project” that was recorded “over three years during the pandemic”.

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