Beyonce’s Renaissance has been hit with yet another complaint over song sampling – this time from British duo Right Said Fred.
The pair, best known for their 1990s earworm I’m Too Sexy, accused the pop megastar of sampling their track without permission.
Alien Superstar, the third track on Renaissance, references the 1992 track in its chorus.
“I’m too classy for this world, forever I’m that girl, feed you diamonds and pearls, ooh baby,” Beyonce sings in reference to the track.
“I’m too classy to be touched, I paid ’em all in dust, I’m stingy with my love, ooh baby.”
At the weekend, Right Said Fred, real names Fred and Richard Fairbrass, accused Beyonce of failing to secure their permission.
“Normally the artist approaches us but Beyoncé didn’t because she is such an arrogant person she just had probably thought ‘come and get me’ so we heard about it after the fact when you did,” the brothers told British tabloid The Sun.
“But everyone else, Drake and Taylor Swift, they came to us … We cant stop it. There is nothing we can do. It is s—.”
Swift sampled the song in her 2017 track Look What You Made Me Do, as did rapper Drake with his 2021 hit Way 2 Sexy alongside Future and Young Thug.
Tweet from @TheFreds
But Beyonce fans quickly cast doubt on Right Said Fred’s claims, pointing out that the brothers had shared their excitement over the sampling in prior social media posts.
After some social media sleuthing, the ‘Bee Hive’ discovered the duo’s official Twitter account had spoken about the sample on three seperate occasions.
They even tweeted that it was “nice to get a writing credit on the new Beyonce album” on July 22 – a week before Alien Superstar’s release – suggesting the pair did have prior knowledge of the sample.
Tweet from @TheFreds
Representatives for Beyonce quickly followed up with The Sun, calling Right Said Fred’s claims “erroneous” and “false”.
“Permission was not only granted for its use, but they publicly spoke of their gratitude for being on the album,” their statement read.
“Permission was asked of their publisher on May 11, 2022 and the publisher approved the use on June 15, 2022. They were paid for the usage in August, 2022.”
The singer’s representatives also shut down the duo’s complaints that they weren’t sufficiently recognised in the track’s writing credits.
“Collectively the Right Said Fred writers own more than any other singular writer and have co-writer credit. This accusation is false.”
Right Said Fred are yet to directly address the statement.
The duo’s complaints are the latest to emerge since Renaissance’s release in July.
The first jab came from Milkshake songstress Kelis, who said Beyonce did not ask her permission to sample her 2003 hit in track five, Energy.
It was later revealed that Beyonce had sought permission from writers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, also known as The Neptunes.
The Milkshake sample was later removed from the album.
Beyonce was forced to make further changes to the album when fans shared their outrage that the word ‘spaz’ was used in Heated.
“Spaz on that ass, spaz on that ass,” Beyonce initially rapped in the song’s outro.
The word has since been replaced with “blast,” with the singer’s team saying the word ‘spaz’ was “not used intentionally in a harmful way”.
The singer has confirmed that more Renaissance albums are on the way, with this album being the first of a three-part project.
While it remains uncertain when the next two instalments will arrive, fans are speculating that the star may be travelling around the world for a global tour next year.
Super-sleuths discovered a blank page on the British Ticketmaster website with the title ‘Beyonce 2022-2023’ late last month – but dates have yet to be formally announced.
