Kelis Says She Was Sampled On Beyoncé’s New Album Without Her Permission

Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for Hollywood Unlocked

Kelis Says She Was Sampled On Beyoncé’s New Album Without Her Permission

Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for Hollywood Unlocked

Beyoncé’s new album, Renaissance, is out tomorrow, and it includes a song called “Energy” that samples Kelis’ 2000 track “Get Along With You.” The Neptunes’ Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo — who are the officially credited writers and producers of the original song — are in the writing credits for “Energy,” but Kelis took to social media to call out Beyoncé for sampling her song without her permission.

Commenting on an Instagram post through the verified account for Kelis’ product line Bounty And Full, the musician had some strong words about the sample. “It’s not a collab it’s theft,” she wrote in one. “My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all 3 parties involved is astounding,” she wrote in another. “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 has spoken out previously about not being properly compensated for her early work with the Neptunes. “I thought it was a beautiful and pure, creative safe space, but it ended up not being that at all,” she said in an interview with The Guardian in 2020. “I was told we were going to split the whole thing 33/33/33, which we didn’t do,” she also said at the time, adding that she was “blatantly lied to and tricked” by “the Neptunes and their management and their lawyers and all that stuff.”

She said that she does not make any money off her first two albums, which were produced by the Neptunes, and that includes “Get Along With You,” which is on her debut Kaleidoscope, and has now been sampled by Beyoncé.

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