'Renaissance': Beyoncé Removes Kelis Sample From 'Energy' Amid Credit Upset

Beyoncé's Renaissance is a critical and commercial success—and has been rapturously welcomed by fans who had waited six years for its release—but her seventh solo album has also sparked a pretty big backlash.

Just two days after Beyoncé changed the lyrics to the song "Heated" to remove a term considered an ableist slur, she has tweaked another of the album's 16 tracks.

"Energy" will now sound a little different, after Beyoncé removed a sample of "Milkshake" by Kelis.

The original version of "Energy" featured an interpolation from "Milkshake," in which Beyoncé sang a variation of the iconic "La-la, la-la, la" from Kelis' 2013 hit. This has been removed.

Kelis first expressed her anger at the fact that "Milkshake" had been used on "Energy," but she had not received a credit or even a notification, on Instragram ahead of the album's release.

Commenting on a post on a fan account called @kelistrends, she wrote: "My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all 3 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."

In a subsequent comment, Kelis wrote: "It's not a collab, it's theft."

Kelis is not officially a writer and producer on "Milkshake," with Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo—the Neptunes—credited as its writers.

In two videos posted on her own Instagram account, Kelis said the use of the song "was a trigger" and expressed her frustrations with the music industry.

In the first clip, Kelis said: "The reality is 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 stuff before, so have many other artists, it's fine. I don't care about that.

"The issue is, not only are we are female artists, OK, Black female artists in an industry that we—there's not that many of us, right? We've met each other, we know each other, we have mutual friends. It's not hard, she can contact, right?"

She captioned the first video: "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 her second clip, Kelis said: "Here's the issue, OK, this is not about, really not about Beyoncé. But the reality is that this is more about the fact that there's a lot of hypocrisy and there's a lot of nonsense."

She went on: "So, we've got Pharrell who did an interview, I think last year, talking about artists' rights and how people should be able to rework their deals and artists should be getting credit for what they've done, and all this stuff.

"Where in reality, when I was signed to him, I had the same manager that he had, and he has writing credits on my records, all my singles coincidentally, and he ain't ever wrote a song, a lyric, a day in his life. So, yeah, that's a problem."

She captioned this post: "I just heard the record everyone is saying has my sample. But it's beyond this song at this point. This was a TRIGGER for me. Milkshake alone is one of the most licensed records of our generation. I am a creator, I'm an innovator, I have done more then left my mark on an era of music and style that will go down in history. But there are bully's and secrets and gangsters in this industry that smile and get away with it until someone says enough is enough. So I'm saying it today. I'm coming for what's mine and I want reparations. Peace."

Kelis has spoken in the past about her fractured relationship with the Neptunes, the duo who produced her first two albums and are credited with five songs on her third, including "Milkshake."

She told The Guardian in 2020: "I was told we were going to split the whole thing 33/33/33, which we didn't do. 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.'"

Both Williams and Hugo were listed as composers on the song "Energy" when Renaissance was released, but have now been removed from the song's listing on Beyoncé's official website.

Newsweek has contacted representatives for Kelis, Beyoncé, Williams and Hugo for comment.