Harlem-born artist Kelis inserted a thorn in the side of Beyoncé‘s Renaissance album launch when she responded with irritation to news she was listed as a sampled artist on the album. Angry in part she hadn’t received a courtesy call from Beyoncé letting her known she’d be included on the project, more so Kelis was upset with Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, who she claims cut her out of writing credits on the music they worked on together.
As it turns out, the Renaissance song in question was “Energy” and included an interpolation not a sample of “Milkshake,” a song performed by Kelis and written by Williams and Hugo.
Kelis may not be as popular an artist as she once was, but she has enough clout that her complaints caused an uproar among the Beyhive that was widely covered by the press.
More interested in action than chatter, Beyoncé chose to put an end to the bad energy surrounding the “Milkshake” interpolation and removed it from the song. While Williams and Hugo are still credited on the song on Spotify, on beyonce.com, their names have been removed from credits. While the song will be adjusted on streaming services, the original song will remain on CDs and vinyl, adding an interesting element to physical versions of the album.
Naturally, members of the Beyhive have been buzzing around Kelis’ Instagram feed and when she was asked by one if she was happy the song was removed, she responded, “Well I’m getting there that’s the right thing to do but my issue was and always has been Neptune’s.” Making reference to Beyoncé’s fans she added, “Proletariat just dumb and here what they want.”
