The Renaissance era seems to be an era of change.
Beyonce is making yet another change to her new album, Renaissance. The 40-year-old superstar will be taking out the “Milkshake” sample from her single “Energy” co-produced with Skrillex, Nova Wav, Al Cres, and BEAM. This change comes after it was revealed that Beyonce was replacing some offensive lyrics following backlash.
She is also removing the sampled interpolation of the song after Kelis called her out for “theft.” The sample has been removed from the version of the track available on Apple and Tidal.
Kelis famously sang “Milkshake” but only Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of The Neptunes are credited as writers on the song. Only the two of them are credited as writers on “Energy.”
Kelis clapped back at Beyonce, Pharrell, and Chad about the use of the sample, replying to a fan comment:
“My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all 3 parties involved is astounding. I heard about the 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.”
In another comment, she wrote:
“It’s not a collaboration it’s theft.”
She then took to her Instagram account to address the issue, claiming also that this is not the first time Beyonce has “copied” her. She said:
“So, here’s the first thing. Number one, so I’m a human being so I get pissed off and I get ticked off. I’m an artist, so I am as Erica said ‘I’m sensitive about my s**t.’ The real beef, is not only with Beyoncé because at the end of the day, she sampled a record, she’s copied me before, so have many other artists, it’s fine, I don’t care about that.”
The 42-year-old singer went on to say:
“The issue is, that not only are we female artists, ok? Black female artists in an industry where there’s not that many of us. We’ve met each other, we know each other, we have mutual friends. It’s not hard. She can contact, right? Ashniko, who’s what, 20? She’s a young white girl, she reached out when she freakin’ like, it’s just common decency. It’s common decency. Especially because, as so many of you pointed out — I know what I own and what I don’t own.
I also know the lies that were told. I also know the things that were stolen. Publishing was stolen, people were swindled out of rights. It happens all the time, especially back then. So, it’s not about me being mad about Beyoncé.”
Kelis stated that Beyonce is just “one issue” and said that she should have just reached out to her if she wanted to sample the track.
She then focused her ire to Pharrell and Chad:
“Pharrell knows better. This is a direct hit at me. He does this stuff all the time. It’s very petty….The reason that I’m annoyed is because I know it was on purpose,” she continued. “This is not like some ‘oh, they were in the studio,’ no. No, this was an on-purpose direct hit, which is very passive-aggressive.
It’s very petty. It’s very stupid.”
