Controversy was probably the last thing Beyoncé expected today after releasing her momentous album Renaissance today. However, the star seems to have ruffled the feathers of Kelis who claims she was never informed that the Houston native would be sampling her 2003 track ‘Milkshake’ on Renaissance cut, ‘Energy’.
However, this squabble runs a lot deeper than what’s on the surface. Kelis is also unhappy with the Neptunes’ Pharrell and Chad Hugo who worked on the singer’s first album. Allegedly, the duo never credited Kelis to begin with on the original song and then used it without telling her almost 20 years later.
This whole debacle kicked off on July 25th after a Kelis fan page on Instagram shared that Beyoncé would be sampling a Kelis song, which was the first Kelis had heard of the news. The R&B star then commented: “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.”
Kelis then posted two videos on Instagram in which she called Williams petty and claimed he “does this shit all the time.” She also claimed Pharrell “swindled” her out of her older music. In a follow-up post, Kelis said that “all this female empowerment stuff only counts if you really do it if you’re really living it and walking the walk.”
Users online were quick to defend Kelis with one user writing: “I mean, Kelis is not wrong in how she feels or what she says. You can still love Beyoncè and empathize with Kelis and her frustration with how she keeps being treated.” While another chimed in saying: “Kelis is literally the blueprint and you’re all insane.”
Scroll below to see all of the reactions to today’s drama.
