Yahoo News Beyoncé Removes Kelis Sample From Renaissance Track After Milkshake Singer's Comments
Beyoncé on stage in 2018 (Photo: Kevin Mazur via Getty Images)
Beyoncé has removed a sample of Kelis’ song Milkshake from her new album Renaissance after the singer took issue with its inclusion.
Last week, Beyoncé unveiled her long-awaited seventh solo album, which has already become her most acclaimed release to date.
However, prior to the album’s release, Kelis revealed she was unhappy to discover that one of Beyoncé’s new songs, Energy, featured a sample of her hit Milkshake.
@jarredjermaine This is the sample (interpolation) in Beyonce “Energy” off her album ‘Renaissance’ that uses Kelis “Milkshake” produced by Pharrell Williams & Chad Hugo. It isn’t from her song “Get Along With You” like the internet keeps saying #beyonce#energy#renaissance#kelis#milkshake#getalongwithyou#music#sample#samples#sampled
♬ ENERGY (feat. Beam) - Beyoncé
Posting on her food Instagram Bounty And Full, Kelis commented: “My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all three parties [Beyoncé and producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo] 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.”
Another comment she posted read simply: “It’s not a collab it’s theft.”
Following this, Kelis shared additional videos on Instagram claiming her main issue with Beyoncé was that the singer didn’t contact her about the sample ahead of time.
Kelis (Photo: Leon Bennett via Getty Images)
On Wednesday evening, a new version of Beyoncé’s song Energy was uploaded onto the streaming services Tidal and Apple Music, with the section that interpolated Milkshake no longer included, per Rolling Stone.
Kelis is not officially listed as a writer or producer on Milkshake, and was therefore not given a credit on Energy when her song was sampled on it.
In 2020, she gave an interview to The Guardian, claiming she was “blatantly lied to and tricked” when working with Pharrell and Chad – known professionally as The Neptunes – claiming the former had stolen “all my publishing”.
“I thought it was a beautiful and pure, creative safe space,” she told the newspaper at the time. “But it ended up not being that at all.”
Pharrell has not spoken publicly about Kelis’ claims, with The Guardian noting he declined to comment at the time.
Chad Hugo was asked about Kelis in an interview earlier this year, telling Vulture: “I heard about her sentiment toward that. I mean, I don’t handle that. I usually hire business folks to help out with that kind of stuff.”
The removal of the Milkshake sample is not the first change that has been made to Renaissance since its release.
Beyoncé also changed a lyric in the song Heated after facing criticism for using an abelist slur.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost UK and has been updated.
