Source: Prince Williams / Getty
After Kelis began raising hell about “Milkshake” being interpolated on Beyoncé’s Renaissance album without her knowledge or permission, it was removed from the track “ENERGY.” The Beyhive then poked fun at her, calling her a cry baby for calling out Queen Bey. Kelis could care less.
For her, removing the “Milkshake” interpolation was an adequate response. When asked by the hive if she was happy it was removed she replied, “Yes, I am actually. lol nobody cried.”
The singer-turned-chef then told a strange joke about Beyoncé receiving promotion from Satan when a fan thanked her for the “promotion.”
“I mean if this is promotion then that speaks to the quality of the demographic. And she needs no promo from me. She has Satan lol. That was a joke, lol a good one. [But] a joke none the less.”
Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, who make up The Neptunes, are listed as songwriters on “Milkshake.” Kelis is only credited as a performer. According to a legal expert, since Kelis is not listed as a songwriter, doesn’t own her masters and is not a co-owner of the publishing copyright, no one was legally required to contact her for permission. She has no say so in what happens with the song.
“To bring a copyright claim, you have to own a copyright,” Joseph Fishman, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville and a national expert in music law, told Billboard. “If Kelis does not own a copyright on the song, she has no claim.”
After the release of the Renaissance, she slammed The Neptunes and Beyoncé, for “theft” of her song.
“I know what I own and what I don’t own,” she said. “I also know the lies that were told,” she said in one of her Instagram videos.
She added, “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.”
