Kelis calls Beyoncé "disrespectful" for not contacting her before sampling her song on Renaissance

29 July 2022, 12:18

Kelis calls out Beyoncé and Pharrell for sampling her song on Renaissance without her permission

By Jazmin Duribe

'Energy' samples Kelis' 2000 track 'Get Along With You'.

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Kelis has blasted both Beyoncé and Pharrell Williams after her song was sampled on Renaissance without her permission.

On Friday (July 29), Beyoncé released her long-awaited seventh studio album, titled Renaissance, full of back-to-back bops. The album features 16 tracks including the song 'Energy', which samples Kelis' 2000 track 'Get Along With You'.

Now, Kelis is actually not credited as a writer or producer on either 'Energy' or 'Get Along With You'. Instead, The Neptunes' Pharrell and Chad Hugo have writing and producing credits on both songs (Kelis has previously spoken about not being properly credited or compensated for her songs with The Neptunes.) However, Beyoncé did credit Kelis when she released the album's sample list days before the album dropped.

Well, that's not enough for Kelis. The 'Milkshake' singer has now slammed Beyoncé, Pharrell and Chad for not contacting her before the song's release.

What Kelis song did Beyoncé sample?

Kelis blasts Beyoncé for not contacting her before sampling her song on Renaissance. Picture: @kelis via Instagram, Parkwood

The issue started when an Instagram account named @kelistrends shared an old photo of Kelis and Beyoncé together, captioned: "@Beyonce's Renaissance album will include a @kelis sample on the song 'Energy'." Kelis then commented on the post: "It’s not a collab it’s theft."

In a separate comment, Kelis added: "My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all three 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."

In two follow-up videos, Kelis then shut down the notion that she is "jealous" of Beyoncé after the Beyhive slammed her comments.

"The reality is that 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 this before, so have many other artists. It’s fine, I don’t care about that," Kelis explained.

"The issue is that not only are we female artists, okay, 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? Ashnikko who's like 20, she's a young white girl, she reached out [on 'Deal With It]. It's just common decency."

She added: "It’s not about me being mad at Beyoncé. You're all sheep! And I'm talking about the people that are obsessed and blind. It's so dumb. It's so ignorant."

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A post shared by Kelis (@kelis)

Kelis went on to say that Beyoncé not reaching out was "stupid and disrespectful" but her main gripe was with Pharrell and Chad, who she believes purposely didn't contact her out of spite. She also stated that when she had signed with Pharrell in the past, he obtained writing credits on all of her singles but "he ain't never written a song, a lyrics a day in his life".

Kelis went on: "This is a direct hit at me. He does this all the time, it’s very petty. Very, very, very. And the reality is that it's frustrating! I have the right to be frustrated. Why? Because no-one had the common decency to call and be like, 'Yo, hey, we wanna use your record.'"

She continued: "It’s not about me being jealous. Jealous of someone using my song? That’s the dumbest, most ignorant thing I’ve ever heard. Like grow up."