If you’re old enough to remember when albums could only be edited BeforeWe are proud of them, and we wish them all the best for the future.
This is the second time this has happened since last year. “Renaissance” dropped (checks notes) four whole days ago, Beyoncé has reached back for a record re-do, this time to squash a public beef with fellow pop singer Kelis, bits of whose 2003 hit “Milkshake”Will no longer be heard at Track 5. “Energy.”
Earlier this week, Beyoncé changed the lyrics to “Heated,”Track 11 “Renaissance,” to remove a word that’s considered an ableist slur. Two days later she quietly replaced “Energy”With a new version.
Original “Energy”The interpolation was done with a little of “Milkshake,” including Beyoncé singing a variation of the song’s memorable la-la-las. Kelis took issue, since she got no forewarning – and no credit, as she’s not an official “Milkshake” songwriter.
It would be Pharrell, Chad Hugo and his Neptunes writer partner Chad Hugo. “Milkshake.”Williams and Hugo were both credited as songwriters, as per tradition. “Energy,” just two of 104 songwriters on Beyoncé’s 16-track record.
The following Wednesday afternoon: “Milkshake”Interpolation was eliminated from the version “Energy”Spotify removed the Williams and Hugo credits, but they remained on the site. The credits were removed from Beyoncé’s official website, however.
Kelis – who has openly grieved in the past about how the Neptunes took full credit for some of her songs – complained about the “Renaissance”Track in a series Instagram comments last week
“My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all 3 parties involved is astounding .. 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.”
“It’s not a collab, it’s theft,”She wrote.
Legally, that’s not at all true – Beyoncé did what was required of her. Kelis however, was not blindsided enough to file a grievance with her Instagram followers in two videos.
“My real beef is not only with Beyoncé because, at the end of the day, she sampled a record. She’s copied me before, she’s done stuff before, so have many other artists, it’s fine. I don’t care about that…. The issue is, not only are we are female artists, OK, Black female artists in an industry that…there’s not that many of us, right? We’ve met each other, we know each other, we have mutual friends. It’s not hard, she can contact, right?”
One can also send a message without making contact – like simply cutting your sample out of the album altogether, and having nothing more to say about the matter.
