It hasn’t been a smooth ride for Beyoncé‘s latest studio album, Renaissance, released July 29. Despite being met with widespread acclaim by industry critics and fans alike, not only was the album leaked a mere two days before its scheduled release, it has also faced backlash for two particular snippets of the songs “Heated” and “Energy.” The artist reacted quickly by altering the controversial segments in the versions of the songs available to stream online.
“Heated” controversy
One of the songs which Beyoncé has altered in recent days is “Heated”. The afrobeat inspired song, which was co-written by Drake, is the eleventh track on Renaissance and it came under fire for containing an expression considered offensive to the disabled community.
Across platforms, the Houston-born superstar can now be heard singing the words “Blastin’ on that ass, blast on that ass” in the outro of the song, but it was the word “spaz” that was featured originally. This word is associated with the term “spastic,” which was borrowed from the medical field to be used against people with disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, autism, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Although, mostly in the United Kingdom, the word became offensive slang used to mean “idiot” or “stupid.”
After facing criticism, Beyoncé released a statement saying she would replace the lyrics. Lizzo also faced backlash for using the same word in her song “Grrrls,” to which she responded in a similar manner, editing it out.
“Energy” controversy
Many Beyoncé fans have joked that while the artist was in the studio re-recording “Heated,” she took the opportunity to lay another mess to rest by editing the official version of the fifth track on Reinaissance, “Energy”, which features Jamaican rising star BEAM.
“Energy” apparently contained an interpolation of a line from Kelis’ 2003 smash hit “Milkshake.” Beyoncé didn’t sample the audio directly, but rather rerecorded it, and credited Kelis as well as the writers of the song, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo — also known as production and songwriting duo The Neptunes.
The reference to Kelis’ song is so minor that there was even some confusion initially about what song had been sampled — the 2000 song “Get Along With You” was mentioned — and what said sample actually consisted of. Although some think it was Kelis’ “lalala” that was reworked by Beyoncé, others claim it was the “Milkshake” backbeat. The “lalala” in “Energy” is said to be from a 1988 song called “Ooh La La La” by Teena Marie, who is also credited by Beyoncé, and not “Milkshake.”
Kelis took issue with the lack of a heads-up from Queen Bey herself about the interpolation. Along with a few comments under a post by Instagram profile @kelistrends where she calls the situation “theft,” she also posted a video talking about the whole debacle.
“Not only are we 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 that hard to contact [me] (…) It’s just common decency. (…) It was stupid and disrespectful.”
Kelis via her Instagram page
As Kelis points out in the video, she is especially frustrated with The Neptunes, whom the singer has previously accused — in a 2020 interview with The Guardian — of lying to her and tricking her into signing away the publishing rights to her first two albums. She says the “Energy” situation is a “direct hit” from Pharrel at her, claiming “he does this stuff all the time.” “The reason I’m annoyed is because I know it was on purpose,” she continues.
Beyoncé has not made any official statement regarding the controversy nor Kelis’ pointed accusations. “Energy” has been updated across platforms, with both the sample and the credits to Kelis, Pharell Williams and Chad Hugo being completely removed from the song.
