Hours before Beyoncé’s much-anticipated seventh studio album Renaissance dropped at midnight on Friday, R&B singer Kelis was fuming.

In the weeks leading up to the release, Beyoncé had been teasing fans with tidbits of information about the dance record. First with the single “Break My Soul,” followed by the tracklist and later, the collaborators, producers, and various samplings from artists including disco queen Donna Summer, Robin S., and Kelis.

My Favorite Dance Tracks: Nine Artists on Their All-Time Dance-Floor Burners

Summer Renaissance: Beyoncé's Latest Ivy Park x Adidas Capsule Takes Us to 'Ivytopia'

Beyoncé's Studio Secrets: Inside the Making of Her Best Songs

But according to Kelis, she was never given a heads up that Beyoncé would be using one of her tracks, going so far as to call it an act of “theft.”

The song in question was Kelis’ anthem “Milkshake,” which was interpolated on the clubby fifth track “Energy,” featuring Jamaican-American rapper and producer BEAM. (Interpolating differs from sampling by tweaking a portion of an existing song for a fresh sound, while a sample lifts directly from a track.)

Using her verified chef Instagram account, Kelis  commented on a fan page about the usage , expressing her frustration. “My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all 3 parties involved is astounding,” she wrote. “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.”

When another fan tried to smooth out the tension, saying they “always felt like Beyoncé really admires Kelis,” the singer curtly responded, “Admire is not the word.”

Kelis later took to her official Instagram account to elaborate  on why she was upset, saying the women have “met each other, we know each other, we have mutual friends,” adding in the video that “it’s beyond this song at this point.”

“It’s not hard. She can contact me, right?” Kelis said. “It’s common decency.”

“This was a TRIGGER for me,” she wrote in another post . “Milkshake alone is one of the most licensed records of our generation. I am a creator; I’m an innovator. I have done more than left my mark on an era of music and style that will go down in history.”

But while Kelis may have aimed her initial criticism at Beyoncé, her real issue lies with Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. She has previously accused her former close friends of “lying and tricking” her into a bad deal, which left them with all the rights to her music and her empty-handed. (Williams, who is credited on “Energy” along with Hugo, did not respond to  Rolling Stone’s  request for comment.)

This means that even though Kelis is the original performer of “Milkshake,” since she’s not credited as a songwriter and doesn’t hold any copyrights to the song, her approval was not legally needed to give another artist clearance to use the song.

“I also know the lies that were told,” Kelis said in her Instagram video. “I also know the things that were stolen. Publishing was stolen, people were swindled out of rights. It happens all the time, especially back then. So it’s not about me being mad about Beyoncé.”

“Pharrell knows better,” she added. “This is a direct hit at me [and] he does this stuff all the time. The reason I’m annoyed is because I know it was on purpose.”

Kelis first met Williams and Hugo as a teenager through mutual friends, and the Neptunes duo served as the sole producers for her first two albums, Kaleidoscope in 1999 and Wanderland in 2001. “I was told we were going to split the whole thing 33/33/33, which we didn’t do,” she told  The Guardian in 2020. “Their argument is: ‘Well, you signed it.’ I’m like: ‘Yeah, I signed what I was told, and I was too young and too stupid to double-check it.'”

She claimed she only discovered the specifics of the deal years later and that the only money she made from her first two albums was from touring. But Kelis says the rift seemed to develop around the making of her third album, Tasty, when Williams and Hugo were allegedly “offended” by her decision to collaborate with other producers. (Kelis’ first two albums were released by Virgin Records, while Tasty — which “Milkshake” appeared on — was jointly released by Arista Records and the Neptunes’ then-newly formed label Star Trak Entertainment.)

While Williams has never commented directly on Kelis’ claim,  Hugo danced around the subject in a May interview with  Vulture . “I heard about her sentiment toward that,” he said. “I mean, I don’t handle that. I usually hire business folks to help out with that kind of stuff. We made some cool records back then with Kelis … It’d be great to connect with her again somewhere down the line.”

And now, Kelis believes that using “Milkshake” without her knowledge or consent was done intentionally. “This is not like some, ‘Oh, they were in the studio…’ No. No, this was an on-purpose, direct hit, which is very passive-aggressive, it’s very petty, it’s very stupid,” she said. “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, so have many other artists, it’s fine, I don’t care about that.”

“But there are bullies and secrets and gangsters in this industry that smile and get away with it until someone says enough is enough,” Kelis concluded. “So, I’m saying it today. I’m coming for what’s mine, and I want reparations.”

All 206 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked

Click here to read the full article.

"This video was not to make fun of Mexican culture or Latin culture," Tyga says in a new Power 106 interview.

Beyoncé's seventh album, "Renaissance," is a 16-song opus that delves into sex and self-worth, all while beckoning listeners onto the dance floor.

The actress spoke to Insider about portraying a lonely, misguided character named Danni in Quinn Shephard's satirical film, now streaming on Hulu.

"Which one's going in the oven first? You!" the famed chef said in the video shared Thursday while approaching a group of startled lambs.

Whoopi Goldberg apologized on ABC's "The View" after Turning Point USA threatened the show with legal action for remarks linking them to neo-Nazis.

Kelis called out Pharrell Williams, who wrote and produced her 2003 smash "Milkshake," for not informing her that an interpolation of the song would be used on Beyoncé's new Renaissance album.

“To attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect.”View Entire Post ›

The Jetsons — which follows a family living in the future — debuted on ABC on Sept. 23, 1962

The primary objective of any NFL team for training camp and the preseason is to survive it. Particularly at the quarterback position. On Saturday, defensive players were getting a little too close to Bills quarterback Josh Allen for his liking, as noted by Mike Garafolo of NFL Media. Allen, as the video retweeted by Garafolo [more]

Model Karoline Bjørnelykke says the industry encouraged an eating disorder. She had to fight to recover from it and has now transitioned to working as a "plus-size" model.

Here are the best tweets from Saturday related to Chet Holmgren's great game.

Netflix released the first official trailer for “Partner Track" on Friday. The upcoming series stars Arden Cho as Ingrid Yun, a first-generation Chinese American who aspires to become the first minority woman to make partner at her elite law firm. “Being on the partner track is how you find out who you really are,” narrates a confident, chic Yun, dressed from head to toe in pink formal attire.

Jeannie Mai finally went to the beach this past week, and her daughter Monaco wasn’t having it. On July 27, Mai posted an adorable video of her daughter Monaco who just wants to go home! Mai posted the super-sweet video with the simple caption, “Sea sick.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by […]

Insider's writer took a state ferry in Alaska's Inside Passage instead of a cruise and would gladly book again. It cost $282 for a private cabin.

The Netflix reality show 'Selling Sunset' is returning for season 6. Read about the 'Selling Sunset' season 6 release date, cast, spoilers, news and more.

Elon Musk's remarks come a day after he filed a countersuit against Twitter in an ongoing legal battle over his $44 billion deal to buy the company.

"This level of hypocrisy feels like a bridge too far."View Entire Post ›

Millions of viewers in China were left inspired after a short film portraying the struggles of a 66-year-old disabled carpenter went viral on the video platform Bilibili. The 11-and-a-half-minute viral video, titled “How Erjiu Cured My Mental Friction after Being Back in the Village for Three Days,” was created by the man’s nephew, Tang Hao, after he visited his home for three days in an undisclosed rural area in China. In the video, Tang uses witty and humorous storytelling to explain Erjiu’s story.

Kyle Busch compares his contract situation to Dale Earnhardt being in free agency four years after his final championship win.

John Morris says American Airlines has caused extensive damage to two wheelchairs costing $75,000, and he wants a "seat at the table" to bring about change.