More from Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\nWhile Beyonc\u00e9 removed the interpolation without any comment this week, the BeyHive seemingly had a lot to say, with ‘Yonce’s supporters diving into the comments on Kelis’ post to tell the singer how they felt about the dust-up. \u201c@kelis now back to the ghetto, you go! Bey snatched that sample down and now u will get no checks. Now keep the queens now out ya mouf!\u201d read one heated response, while another person commented, \u201cYou happy girl? Now u irrelevant again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The unkind words led one commenter to suggest that Beyonc\u00e9’s followers are \u201cdepressed and sad,\u201d which drew a very pointed rejoinder from Kelis: \u201cthey are a joke.\u201d And when someone else called Bey’s devoted fans \u201cstraight crazy\u201d and said \u201ci ain’t never seen folks go so hard for someone that they never met or know personally,\u201d Kelis responded, \u201cIt’s got cult written all over it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The insults included one from a commenter who called Kelis a \u201ccry baby,\u201d and wondered if she was happy now that the offending \u201cla la la la la\u201d bit was removed, Kelis responded, \u201cYes I am actually. lol nobody cried.\u201d<\/p>\n
When a commenter misstated her age \u2014 they claimed she was 57, when, in fact, she turns 42 on Aug. 21 \u2014 Kelis said, \u201clol if I’m 57 then I look incredible and your dumb a\u2013 should be more concerned with why I look so amazing instead of being such a miserable sheep lol.\u201d Never one to hold her tongue, Kelis \u2014 who also responded with kind words to fans who praised her \u2014 wrote, \u201clol yeah, I said what needed to be said. #iwin,\u201d after a BeyHiver said that \u201cBeyonc\u00e9 just made it right. Cut you off. No more drama.\u201d<\/p>\n
Story continues<\/button><\/p>\nThere was plenty more back-and-forth about the Renaissance<\/em> track and the controversy, which kicked off after the album dropped last week featuring the interpolation. The \u201cMilkshake\u201d bit was credited in the liner notes to Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of the Neptunes production team, credited as the writers and producers of the original Kelis album track.<\/p>\nThough Kelis is only credited as the singer on that song, she took shots at her former collaborators in a series of Instagram videos in which she said, \u201cThe reality is that my real beef is not only with Beyonc\u00e9 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mostly, it seemed, Kelis was angry that Bey, or her team, did not reach out to give her a head’s up about the interpolation, especially since, \u201cwe’ve met each other, we know each other, we have mutual friends. It’s not hard. She can contact, right?\u201d But her real anger was aimed at Williams and Hugo, who she has frequently claimed \u201cstole\u201d the publishing on tracks they worked on together early in her career.<\/p>\n
And it wasn’t the first time Kelis has called out her former collaborators, who produced a 1999 debut Kaleidoscope<\/em> and 2003’s Wanderland<\/em>, which contained \u201cMilkshake.\u201d Due to being \u201cblatantly lied to and tricked\u201d to sign contracts based on \u201cwhat I was told,\u201d Kelis told the The Guardian <\/em>in 2020 that she does not make any money from her debut or Wanderland <\/em><\/p>\nSpeaking to billboard<\/em> the day after Renaissance<\/em>‘s release, a copyright expert said Kelis has no legal standing because she is not credited as a songwriter on the track, which means she would not be a co-owner of the publishing copyright and thus would have nave the right to approve or deny the use of it on Bey’s track.<\/p>\n\u201cTo bring a copyright claim, you have to own a copyright,\u201d Joseph Fishman, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville and a national expert in music law, told billboard<\/em>. \u201cIf Kelis does not own a copyright on the song, she has no claim.\u201d<\/p>\nSpokespeople for Kelis, Beyonc\u00e9 and Williams have not returned multiple requests from billboard<\/em> for comment on the controversy.<\/p>\nCheck out Kelis’ post below.<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nClick here to read the full article. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n