Beyoncé Just Removed More Lyrics From Her New Album
And there goes even more!
Beyoncé’s new dance record may be a smash hit (like any Beyoncé album), but its release hasn’t been without controversy. Bey has had to make several changes to the Renaissance, with the latest being the removal of a Kelis sample from the song “Energy.” If you listen carefully, you can hear Beyoncé interpolating the famous “La-la, la-la, la” melody from the hit 2003 song “Milkshake.” Take a listen to the difference in the video below.
At this time, you can no longer hear the interpolation on any streaming platform. While Beyoncé’s team hasn’t confirmed the reason behind the sample removal, it seems likely that Kelis’ complaints about the sample may be causing the change. Kelis hit Instagram to clarify that the sample was not a collaboration and that she views it as theft. However, Beyoncé technically didn’t need to remove the interpolation from a legal standpoint. While Kelis performed “Milkshake,” she isn’t credited as a writer or producer of the song. Those credits belong to Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, aka The Neptunes. The original credits included Williams and Hugo as co-writers on “Energy,” but since the sample has been removed, they’ve also been removed from the credits. Here’s a video of Kelis talking about the song below:
In her posts, it doesn’t seem like Kelis has as much of a problem with Beyoncé as she does with the Neptunes. Although she thinks that Beyoncé should have told her out of respect, Kelis’ ongoing feud with the Neptunes seems to be the crux of her issues. Kelis has expressed in the past that she doesn’t feel like she was fairly compensated when she worked with the two producers during the early stages of her career. It seems like regardless of who Kelis has issues with, she was heard to a point because the interpolation did end up getting removed. While this might not be the point of Kelis’ argument, it does remove any issues in the matter for Beyoncé.
This would mark the third change that Beyoncé has made to songs on her newest album. She recently changed the lyrics in the song “Heated,” which were considered ableist. The lyrics in question said “Spazzin’ on that ass, spazz on that ass.” This could be considered shorthand for spastic, which is a condition that makes it difficult for individuals to control their muscle movements. The lyrics were changed to “Blastin’ on that ass, blast on that ass.” Yoncé also made changes to the credits for the album’s first single “Break My Soul.” Allen George and Fred McFarlane, who wrote the hit Robin S. song “Show Me Love,” were dropped from the credits before being quickly added back in.
Beyoncé’s album Renaissance was released on July 29. The album has already received plenty of prasie and critical acclaim despite some of the hiccups post-release. According to data from Billboard, the album has already earned the equivalent of 275,000 album units, making it one of the biggest opening weeks of 2022. Whether or not Beyoncé has to make more changes to the album, it definitely seems like there’s no slowing down the Queen.
