US songstress Kelis is standing tall against the Bey Hive in her public denouncement of Beyoncé and Pharrell Williams‘ moral compass.
This is the song that sparked Kelis’ outrage
On Friday, Queen Bey finally released her much-anticipated seventh studio album, Renaissance act 1, a 16-track project featuring a star-studded writers lineup including the likes of The Dream, Syd from The Internet, her hubby Jay-Z and others.
However, controversy struck when Kelis, the ex-wife of Jay-Z’s former foe, Nas, caught wind of Energy, the song that precedes the album’s lead single Break My Soul.
The song credits Beyoncé, Skrillex, BEAM and AI Cres as producers and, interestingly, Pharrell shows up in the list of composers. A closer listen to Energy makes it clear that, in some capacity, artistic inspiration may have been drawn from Kelis’ Milkshake.
The songstress’ 2003 breakout hit single was composed by Chad Hugo and Pharrell from The Neptunes. Kelis, too earned a co-producer credit on the song, but almost two decades later, when an interloped version appeared on Beyoncé’s album, her name was nowhere to be found in the credits list.
In fact, Kelis was informed of the news when a leaked version of the Renaissance act 1 tracklist surfaced online.
“My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all [three] 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,” she wrote at the time.
Right after Beyoncé’s new album dropped on music platforms, Kelis posted two videos on Instagram, addressing her discontent with the disrespect she claims was a direct and premeditated attack orchestrated by Williams.
Kelis beef with Pharrell Williams takes new shape
More than anything, it seems Kelis is unpleased by Beyoncé’s apparent hypocrisy. However, the main target of her attacks is her former collaborator, Pharrell Williams, whom she has lambasted as a fraud and thief.
“The reason I’m annoyed is because I know it was on purpose,” she claimed.
As reported by Vulture, Kelis’ feud with Williams and The Neptunes stretches beyond Energy. In 2020, during an interview with The Guardian, Kelis shockingly revealed that she had not made a dime from the sale proceeds of her first two albums, Kaleidoscope (1999) and Wanderland (2001), due to a shoddy contractual agreement she had entered into with Williams and Hugo,
Effectively, under the agreement, all composition and production credits were awarded to The Neptunes, even though neither of them contributed to the albums’ writing process.
“I was told we were going to split the whole thing 33/33/33, which we didn’t do. [I was] blatantly lied to and tricked [by] the Neptunes and their management and their lawyers and all that stuff,” she admitted in the 2020 interview.
It seems the latest jab from Williams was the last straw, and she has made it abundantly clear that she’s coming for what’s hers.