Kelis: what did Milkshake singer say about Beyoncé new album Renaissance - Energy claim explained

Beyoncé has removed a sample of Kelis’ song “Milkshake” from the “Energy” track on her new album Renaissance after the singer claimed she had used the track without her permission.

Taking to Instagram to address the claims in a series of videos, Kelis accused the megastar of having “no integrity or soul.”

She alleged that Beyoncé, Pharrel Williams, and Chad Hugo had not made her aware that the song was going to be sampled on the track.

The updated track was released onto Apple music and Tidal streaming services on 3 August.

Here’s everything you need to know about what Kelis said.

What has Kelis said about Beyonce?

Beyoncé released her new album Renaissance on Friday 29 July.

One of the tracks titled “Energy” samples Kelis’s 2000 track “Milkshake”.

Kelis claims she only discovered her song was being used after an Instagram account called kelistrends shared a picture of her and Beyoncé together with the caption: “@Beyonce’s Renaissance album will include a @kelis sample on the song ‘Energy’.”

The singer then replied under her verified Instagram account bountyandfull, stating: “It’s not a collab it’s theft”.

Adding: “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.”

Kelis went on to release two videos on Instagram accusing Beyoncé, Williams, and Hugo of not making her aware that her song was being sampled in the track.

Her video was captioned: “I said what I said , cause it’s the truth . You don’t have to like it or agree . Facts are facts . If you’re a sheep keep it movin this convo will be over your head . I didn’t ask for this , but I’m not afraid of it either .”

In the video she addressed the accusations that she was “jealous” of the Crazy in Love singer.

Kelis 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. She’s done this before, so have many other artists. It’s fine, I don’t care about that.

“The issue is that not only are we female artists, okay, 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 hard. She can contact, right?”

Adding: “It’s not about me being jealous. Jealous of someone using my song? That’s the dumbest, most ignorant thing I’ve ever heard. Like grow up.”

What has Kelis said about Pharrel Williams?

But it wasn’t just Beyoncé, with the singer also throwing shade at Williams, who she worked on her first two albums with.

In her video Kelis said: “Pharrell knows better. This is a direct hit at me. He does this all the time, it’s very petty.”

Adding “I have the right to be frustrated.

“Why? Because no one had the human decency to call and go, ‘Hey, we’d like to use your record.’ The reason I’m annoyed is because I know it was on purpose.”

Kelis claimed that Williams had “swindled” her out of her older music and revealed she had not made any money from her first two albums.

She said: “He has writing credits on my records, all my singles coincidentally, and he never wrote a song and lyric a day in his life.”

Adding that “Chad is really an amoeba, he’s spineless, it’s a miracle he can keep his neck up.”

Kelis has hit out about her treatment from the Neptunes before, discussing it in an interview with the Guardian in 2020.

She alleged that she made no money from her first two albums which were produced by Williams and Chad and that “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.’”

When was Kelis’ song “Milkshake” released?

The track “Milkshake” was released in 1999 along with her debut studio album, Kaleidoscope.