Renaissance

Beyonce’s BeyHive Descends On Diane Warren After She Questions ‘Renaissance’s Songwriting Credits

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A lot of digital ink has been spilled over pop music stans and their often aggressive method of demonstrating their fealty to the stars they love so much, but perhaps no group is as feared as the BeyHive, the swarming, stinging online army dedicated to Beyonce. And with her new album Renaissance out and taking new creative risks, they’ve been busier than ever this week, even lashing out at Beyonce’s esteemed peers and forebears such as “Diane Warren, who had the unfortunate temerity to question the number of songwriters on the album.

“How can there be 24 writers on a song?” she wondered on Twitter. Although the R&B icon insisted she intended no shade, Beyonce’s self-appointed defense force wasn’t taking any chances. It probably doesn’t help that she added a rolling eyes emoji, which is, as any longtime denizen of the world wide web can tell you, a universal symbol for shade.

Either way, Ms. Diane became the recipient of plenty of shade herself as Beyonce fans chimed in either offering “helpful” primers on the nature of sample credits or just outright bullying the 65-year-old singer, telling her to stay in her lane. While some fans did join the fracas to note Warren’s many lasting contributions to the musical canon as a songwriter, the damage was already done. Perhaps we’ll just chalk this one up to a generational conflict with truly unfortunate timing. See the fans’ reactions below.

All The Beyoncé Songs That Jay-Z Has Co-Written

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Beyoncé concluded a six-year wait for a new album with the release of her seventh album Renaissance over the weekend. Of the many talking points about the album after its release, one was a line from “Church Girl” that many assumed was about Jay-Z. On the song, Beyoncé sings, “Must be the cash ’cause it ain’t your face.” It’s inspired many reactions and memes (like this one) that connect it to Jay-Z. While we’ll never know if Mr. Carter is the subject of the line, one can’t forget that Jay probably heard the song beforehand as he helped write songs for Beyoncé on multiple occasions.

Here Are All The Beyoncé Songs That Jay-Z Has Co-Written

Beyoncé and Jay-Z have collaborated on multiple occasions. Their list of songs together includes, “Crazy In Love,” “Drunk In Love,” “Part II (On The Run),” “Deja Vu,” and the entire Everything Is Love album. Their collaborations even go as far as Jay-Z helping to write Beyoncé songs. To begin, despite not having a guest verse on the album, Jay-Z has three writing credits on Renaissance: “Alien Superstar,” “Break My Soul,” and “America Has A Problem.” Jay also has writing credits on “Kitty Kat” from Beyoncé’s 2006 sophomore album B’Day as well as “Baby Boy,” ‘Hip Hop Star” and “Yes” from her 2003 debut album Dangerously In Love.

Why Are Beyoncé And Lizzo Removing ‘Spaz’ From Their Songs?

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After some years away, both Beyoncé and Lizzo returned with new albums this year. Beyoncé’s newly-released seventh album Renaissance marks her first full-length effort since 2017’s Lemonade. Renaissance clocked in with 16 songs and features from Beam, Tems, and Grace Jones as well as additional contributors including Drake, Jay-Z, Syd, and others. On the flip side, Lizzo released her fourth album Special earlier this month and that arrived with 12 songs and no guest features. Renaissance and Special don’t share many similar qualities, but there is one thing they both have in common: they both have songs that were criticized thanks to their use of the word “spaz.”

Why Are Beyoncé And Lizzo Removing ‘Spaz’ From Their Songs?

Lizzo was the first to receive criticism for using the word “spaz” and it came after she released “Grrrls” from Special. In a line from the song she sings, “Hold my bag, b*tch, Hold my bag. Do you see this sh*t? I’mma spazz.” Beyoncé’s case comes more recently thanks to “Heated” from Renaissance. In that song, Beyoncé sings, “Spazzin’ on that ass, spaz on that ass / Fan me quick, girl, I need my glass.”

Merriam-Webster defines “spaz” as “one who is inept” and it categorizes the term as “slang, often offensive.” The word itself comes from “spastic” and “spasticity,” and according to a paper published by the National Library Of Medicine, the latter word “is a velocity-dependent increase in muscle tone and uncontrolled, repetitive, involuntary contractions of skeletal muscles.” With that being, the word “spaz” is viewed as an ableist term for those with cerebral palsy, also known as “spastic diplegia.”

As a result of the derogatory nature of “spaz,” Lizzo altered the line in “Grrrls” while a rep for Beyonce promised to do the same for the line on “Heated.”

Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

People Are Upset That Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’ Has The Same Ableist Slur Lizzo Recently Removed From ‘Grrrls’

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Beyoncé’s new album Renaissance is so far universally beloved, although some listeners have noticed one aspect of it they find troubling: In one section of the song “Heated,” Beyoncé says, “Spazzin’ on that ass, spaz on that ass / Fan me quick, girl, I need my glass.”

The use of the word “spaz” is particularly noteworthy since Lizzo just received criticism for including the word on “Grrrls” and promptly changed the song’s lyrics in response. Now, people are calling out Beyoncé, including Hannah Diviney, the writer and disability advocate whose tweet brought significant attention to Lizzo’s lyrical issue.

For those unfamiliar with the term, Merriam-Webster defines it as “one who is inept” and categorizes it as “slang, often offensive.” In 2007, Benjamin Zimmer, editor for American dictionaries at Oxford University Press, noted that in the US in the 1960s, usage of the word shifted “from its original sense of ‘spastic or physically uncoordinated person’ to something more like ‘nerdy, weird, or uncool person.’” The word is derived from “spastic” and “spasticity,” of which a 2015 paper published by the National Library Of Medicine notes, “Spasticity is a velocity-dependent increase in muscle tone and uncontrolled, repetitive, involuntary contractions of skeletal muscles. Spasticity presents as upper motor neuron symptoms in patients with central nervous system pathology such as stroke, spinal cord injury, brain injury, or multiple sclerosis.”

In response to Lizzo, Diviney explained the issue with the word, tweeting, “Hey @lizzo my disability Cerebral Palsy is literally classified as Spastic Diplegia (where spasticity refers to unending painful tightness in my legs) your new song makes me pretty angry + sad. ‘Spaz’ doesn’t mean freaked out or crazy. It’s an ableist slur. It’s 2022. Do better.” In a July 30 tweet in response to the Beyoncé song, she wrote, “So @Beyonce used the word ‘spaz’ in her new song Heated. Feels like a slap in the face to me, the disabled community & the progress we tried to make with Lizzo. Guess I’ll just keep telling the whole industry to ‘do better’ until ableist slurs disappear from music [broken heart emoji].”

Diviney expanded on those points in an opinion piece published on The Guardian today, writing in part:

“Beyoncé’s commitment to storytelling musically and visually is unparalleled, as is her power to have the world paying attention to the narratives, struggles and nuanced lived experience of being a black woman – a world I can only ever understand as an ally, and have no desire to overshadow.

But that doesn’t excuse her use of ableist language – language that gets used and ignored all too often. Language you can be sure I will never ignore, no matter who it comes from or what the circumstances are. It doesn’t excuse the fact that the teams of people involved in making this album somehow missed all the noise the disabled community made only six weeks ago when Lizzo did the same thing.

It doesn’t explain how millions of people have already heard this album and yet aren’t raising the issue, except to make fun of or degrade the disabled community.”

After the release of “Heated,” some took to Twitter and pointed out how Beyoncé wasn’t facing as much backlash as Lizzo did.

Meanwhile, others excused Beyoncé’s use of the word and argued it has a different meaning in the Black community.

Beyoncé has yet to publicly address the situation.

Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Big Freedia Is Thrilled To Be Sampled On Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’ But Would Have Loved To Record New Vocals

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Big Freedia’s 2014 track “Explode” is one of many songs sampled on Beyoncé’s new album Renaissance. She was excited from the beginning, making a post on Instagram once “Break My Soul” was out: “It feels surreal to be on the track with the Queen Beyoncé once again I’m so honored to be apart of this special moment I’m forever grateful lord. someone please catch me,” she wrote.

Today, she went on CBS Mornings to discuss the experience. When asked if she cared how “Explode” would be used, she said, “Not at all! It’s Beyoncé. You can use whatever you need, honey.” She was also asked if she would have wanted to re-record the “Explode” vocals for “Break My Soul.” She said, “Of course. If I’m there, I can do a whole lot more.”

She also touched on the what it was like writing that song initially. “At the time when I wrote ‘Explode,’ I was thinking about all of those things I wanted to release, and the things I do release when I get onstage,” she said. “All those things, I try to forget about those things and get into my zone. Sometimes you want to explode, all the things that you’re going through. So I wanted to release all those things.”

This reaction is the polar opposite of Kelis’, who is upset that no one notified her that she was sampled on Renaissance. “My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all 3 parties involved is astounding,” she wrote.

Kelis’ Beef With Beyonce’s ‘Renaissance’ Sample Is A Reminder That Some Aspects Of The Music Business Need An Overhaul

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Beyonce’s new album, Renaissance, has arrived and while the Beyhive is celebrating the long-awaited return of their Queen, not everyone is as enthused to hear the house and techno-influenced project. In particular, Kelis, the singer best known for her early 2000s run including tracks like “Caught Out There,” “Milkshake” and “Bossy,” has a bone or two to pick with Beyonce over one song specifically: “Energy,” which features short interpolations of her songs “Get Along with You” and “Milkshake.”

Taking to Instagram, Kelis said she felt insulted by the samples, calling them “theft” and asserting “the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all three parties involved is astounding.” Her frustration appears to stem from the fact that she wasn’t contacted prior to the release to approve the samples, writing, “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 later video, she elaborated, “She can contact, right? Ashnikko, who’s what, 20? She’s a young white girl, she reached out… It’s common decency.” She clarified that “it’s not about me being mad about Beyoncé,” and reiterated her arguments stemming from a few years ago when she called out Pharrell and Chad Hugo, The Neptunes, for not crediting her as a songwriter for her first two albums with them. In her view, Pharrell and Chad tricked her out of her publishing rights and the associated royalties that come with them.

Now, whether or not you agree with Kelis, her comments make one thing crystal clear and practically undeniable: The recording industry as we know it is desperately in need of an overhaul. In fact, it could be argued that reform of the current business model is decades overdue; after all, the internet nearly killed the major label system over twenty years ago when downloading .mp3s on Napster was the preferred method of music consumption for a relatively small sector of the market. Now, with the advent of streaming, blockchain, and computerized algorithms driving music discovery — and keeping track of every transaction automatically, there’s no excuse not to implement some big changes when it comes to things like attributing credits and royalties to artists.

To be fair, Beyonce did give credits to the required parties, clearing the samples and getting permission from the rights holders. Publishing administration is handled by the business people; I’m not so sure how much of a hand Beyonce personally has in that end of the creation process (probably very little, considering the seeming 1 billion other details she personally oversees, from choreography to costuming). And Kelis did sign those contracts — or neglected to sign the split sheets — that abdicated her share of publishing to Star Trak.

But that might be the biggest part of the problem. How many artists have we seen come forward over the past few years about regrettable terms they didn’t understand in contracts they signed as teenagers? What does a 17-year-old know about the masters rights or publishing rights or how an advance works? And for what it’s worth, we’ve seen how supposed industry veterans like Kanye West, who was in his mid-20s when he signed with Def Jam after working with the label for years on multiple hits, clearly don’t get how these things work. Who’s to say, without looking at the contracts in question, that Pharrell himself even knows what he signed Kelis to?

If we’re going to point fingers, we’ve got to point them at the powers that be, the folks who set up the system and profit the most from it — and who refuse to change it to keep with the times. With so many new technologies available, wouldn’t it make sense to review some of these “industry standard” contracts and revise the industry standards to fit modern conditions? Thanks to technology, labels have new avenues to market and promote music and turn a profit on their investments, wouldn’t it behoove them to share those profits with the people generating the product? If the industry is a house, archaic practices are the termites destroying it from the inside while the changing times are the weather, slowly stripping away the paint and wearing down the roof.

I get why they wouldn’t want to perform a top-down overhaul. It’d be costly, it’d be time-consuming, and it’d take a lot more work than they’re already putting in to generate record revenues. But just like with a house, if you don’t do the maintenance, eventually all those little problems add up to bigger problems and you find yourself looking for a new place to live. The near collapse of the industry in the early 2000s should have been a warning; while the labels narrowly escaped their demise then, it was by innovating and challenging the status quo. Unfortunately, some seemed to have missed the lesson. The next epochal shift in music technology could be right around the corner, and next time, they might not be able to save themselves.

Questlove Believes Beyoncé Has ‘Made Her ‘Off The Wall” With ‘Renaissance’

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Beyoncé’s new album Renaissance has been out for about half a day now and people can’t stop fawning over it. Lil Nas X has some pretty intense thoughts about the LP and now Questlove, perhaps the most learned music historian/appreciator in the industry, has declared that Renaissance is something special.

In a post on Instagram, The Roots drummer gives the album a 4.5 out of 5 rating and writes, “I still maintain that a good 4 weeks has to go by before you give a rating. I definitely have walked back many a high rating album some 20 years after the fact. I listened 7 times. Which is 8 times more than the last time I listened to anyones record from start to finish. She definitely made her ‘Off The Wall’ with this one (dance album of the year———this being 2022 we can’t give her decade accolades but so far the mix, quality, etc are so dope. This will hold high in her cannon. Love the growth: made classics in her teens, her 20s her 30s & getting better.”

Off The Wall, of course, is Michael Jackson’s 1979 album that is widely considered one of the best music releases of all time, so comparing Beyoncé’s latest to it is a tremendously high honor and not something it seems Questlove would do without good reason.

Beyonce Fans Are Convinced A Shady Line On Her New Album Is About Jay-Z

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Beyonce’s music has always been full of playful lyrics about — or even penned by — her husband Jay-Z, but usually, they’re of a complimentary sort. Her new album Renaissance, though, has a shady line that fans are sure confirms a long-held suspicion about the power couple’s relationship, and they’re reacting accordingly on Twitter. Toward the end of the song “Church Girl,” Beyonce borrows a line from Nelly’s controversial 2000 hit “Tip Drill,” repurposing it to suit a gender-flipped dynamic. “Must be the cash ’cause it ain’t your face,” she crows on the outro.

Naturally, some fans have interpreted this line as a reference to Jay-Z, whose facial characteristics have long been a bit of a target within the world of hip-hop. On Nas’ vicious 2001 diss “Ether,” the Queens native wondered whether Jay was “abused as a child, scared to smile, they called you ugly,” while during a separate beef, Cam’ron joked that the Marcy Projects product resembled the cigarette mascot, Joe Camel. Jay himself even made a self-deprecating reference to this tendency on his own 4:44 track “Familly Feud,” rhyming “Ain’t no such thing as an ugly billionaire.”

All of which have combined to give fans the impression that Beyonce’s new song must be talking about her (very wealthy) husband. I’m sure he’ll be crying himself to sleep on their bed that is presumably made of cash, wiping his eyes with dollar bills, and resting his head on solid gold bricks. Listen to “Church Girl” up top and check out some of the hilarious responses below.

Lil Nas X Had An Exuberant Reaction To Beyonce’s New Album, ‘Renaissance’

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The reviews of Beyonce’s brand new album Renaissance are rolling in. Listeners are raving about the sequencing; singer Kelis is upset about having been sampled without knowing. Now Lil Nas X has shared a humorous take on the album.

The “Industry Baby” rapper wrote, “this beyonce album so c*nty hunty i’m finna slay the boots chew chew chew vogue pussy pussy kitty kitty kat!”

That’s all he offered, but that’s enough! It’s definitely a compliment, and many are agreeing.

Lil Nas X is known for being quite the Twitter personality. He’s not afraid to share his opinions; recently, he replied to a fan who said that he milked the success of “Old Town Road” for a while by offering remixes. “i don’t wanna milk any of my songs like that again. it takes the fun out of creating new things,” he stated.

He also used Twitter to discuss receiving no nominations from the BET Awards. “Thank you bet awards,” he wrote in a now-deleted tweet. “An outstanding zero nominations again. black excellence!” He added afterwards, “I just feel like black gay ppl have to fight to be seen in this world,” he said in another deleted tweet, “and even when we make it to the top mfs try to pretend we are invisible.”