GOOD ARTISTS BORROW, GREAT ARTISTS STEAL: SAMPLING, INTERPOLATION, AND 'COMMON DECENCY'.

From left to right: Beyoncé, Kelis, Ariana Grande, Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa. Edit by Nicole Marie Dillman.

Photos by: Blair Caldwell for Parkwood Entertainment, Stefan Hoederath | Credit: Redferns via Getty Images 2014 Stefan Hoederath, Mario Anzuoni | Credit: REUTERS, Sam Gehrke for Rolling Stone, Image Source: Mugler.

A lot has happened since the release of Beyoncé's Renaissance on July 29th: the album was leaked 36 hours before it was officially out in the world, Kelis took to Instagram to call out Beyoncé and Pharrell for using her song, the album broke Spotify's record for most-streamed album in a single day by a female artist in 2022 so far, 'Alien Superstar' knocked out 'Break My Soul' for the #1 spot on US Apple Music charts, superstar songwriter Dianne Warren eye-rolled and questioned how can there be 24 writers for that song, Disability Advocates came after the track 'Heated', Beyoncé listened and removed the ableist slur and also Kelis' interpolation from the album, causing Kelis' to go on social media claiming 'she won', all of the 16 tracks that make up Renaissance soared to the Billboard Top 100 chart, and the Queens gifted us with 'Break My Soul Remix', a collaboration between Queen Bey and Queen of Pop Madonna, as well as giving powerful shout-outs to Black women in music on the track. Safe to say Bey delivered and has given us plenty to talk about. So we will.

Please excuse the fast roundup of post-release events, but instead of re-telling everything you've probably already read about the album everywhere else, I want to write about the ripple effect Kelis' claims have caused or should cause. In those three-minute-long Instagram videos, she touched on a lot of current underlying issues in the music industry, issues that have been there, problematic since the very beginning, and that have cost many artists and songwriters successful careers and monetary compensation for their work and creativity.

If we break this down from the beginning, without focusing on the celeb drama and rather paying close attention to what this tells about her experience in the music industry, the bottom line is Kelis became upset when she found out along with the rest of the world that her song 'Milkshake' was interpolated in Beyoncé's 'Energy', the fifth track off Renaissance. No phone call from Beyoncé, no heads up whatsoever, nada. So did Beyoncé do her dirty? Not at all. And did Kelis deserve that phone call? It's not protocol, but it sure would have been nice.

To better understand the situation as a whole, it is important that we know the difference between 'sample' and 'interpolation', because, from what I've seen, the media and other articles have been using both terms interchangeably when they really are not. A 'sample' is when a song includes a copy-paste fragment of another. A very well-known example of this is Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby, which uses the famous bassline from Queen and David Bowie's Under Pressure. A more recent case of sampling in a song would be in Jack Harlow's viral song First Class, which samples Fergie's 2006 hit Glamorous. 'Interpolation' occurs when a fragment of a song is imitated in another. A good example to explain this would be Ariana Grande's 7 Rings, which uses the melody from Rodgers and Hammerstein's My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music. Instead of singing about 'raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens', Ariana transformed it into 'breakfast at Tiffany's and bottles of bubbles,’ and the entire melody now goes about a girl's financial independence and luxury splurge. However, this is an extreme case of interpolation, which is why Ariana Grande pays 90% of the song's earnings to Rodger and Hammerstein's estate. Most commonly, interpolations are used in passing. For example, Dua Lipa's Break My Heart briefly interpolates INXS' Need You Tonight in the chorus. Both sampling and interpolation are common practices in songwriting and production so, if executed properly from beginning to release, everyone involved walks away happy and with more change in their pocket. But this was not the case for Kelis.

If you've followed this case, you already know that Beyoncé didn't owe Kelis any phone call because to be allowed to use this interpolation in 'Energy', she had to ask permission from the publishing right holders of 'Milkshake', which Kelis, sadly, isn't. The publishing rights owners of 'Milkshake' and Kelis' earlier work from 1999 to 2003 are The Neptunes - the production duo made up of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo - who are listed as the sole songwriters and producers on the track. They own the song, so they're able to shop it around and keep earning from it. This opens another conversation, one which Kelis speaks about from her experience as a young artist and has been very vocal about through the years since she parted ways with the producers: top music execs taking advantage of young, excited artists who would sign just about anything. She has talked about losing her publishing rights to Pharrell, and in the recent Instagram videos posted in the wake of the release of 'Energy', Kelis said the producer “swindled” her out of her publishing rights and that he was earning her royalties despite him "never having written a song or lyric in his life". In a 2020 interview with The Guardian, she revealed that she had made nothing from her first two albums' sales, which were produced in their entirety by The Neptunes, because she was "blatantly lied to and tricked" by the producer duo, who had promised her a three-way split in publishing earnings. However, she only found out after signing the contract that this promise had not been respected in the document. Kelis said, “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.’” She also claimed in the video, “Pharrell knows better. This is a direct hit at me [and] he does this stuff all the time,” she said. “The reason I’m annoyed is because I know it was on purpose… This was an on-purpose, direct hit, which is very passive-aggressive, it’s very petty, it’s very stupid.” Unfortunately, this scenario is not at all uncommon for new, inexperienced artists, and I, too, can talk extensively about being offered some sketchy contracts at the beginning of my songwriting career, and bigger songwriters trying to take away more credit for my ideas, lyrics, and melodies. The music industry is so poorly regulated that it is incredibly easy to add or subtract names in song credits, and those affected only find out about it until it is a little too late.

So Beyoncé took advantage of the accessibility of deleting and re-uploading music in the streaming era and uploaded a new version of 'Energy' that had the interpolation removed. The 'Milkshake' artist was not shy to say on social media that "she won", and that she was happy Beyoncé, Pharrell, and Hugo did not get away with the "theft". Still, to me, what Kelis seemed to be even more upset about was that none of the three people involved had the 'human decency' to call her and give her a heads up, and I do believe she has a fair point, especially having being so vocal about the theft of her publishing at the hands of the producer duo. She says it wouldn't have taken Beyoncé and her team too much effort to get her phone number and give her a call. It is in no way part of the procedure of getting permission to clear a sample or interpolation to talk to performers, but woman to woman and artist to artist, it sure would have set an incredible example of female empowerment for the rest of us, again, especially knowing that Kelis, unfortunately, did not have behind her the support she thought she did in Williams and Hugo.

Another lesson we can take home from this album is that not even the art of one of the most influential artists is untouchable. It will be looked at through a magnifying glass, and who knows if any other claims will be made against the choice of words or sampling permissions. Now that even Queen Bey was forced to alter her songs, I am very curious to see what happens monetary value-wise with the physical copies of Renaissance, the ones that could not have the interpolation or the ableist slur removed. To my knowledge, it is the first time there would be this sort of blip in music history, and maybe those who already have a physical copy of the album on their hands should really hold on to it.

Kelis concludes that "something needs to change" in the music industry. And this has been true for a long, long while now, with artists either getting credits erased or threatening songwriters with 'I will only release this song if you give me credit.’ To be honest, things will only start to change once musicians, songwriters, artists, producers, publishers, and labels stop seeing each other as competition, as someone who will want to 'take the bigger piece of the pie', and instead start looking at each other as team members, transparently, as essential parts of the same ecosystem. Whenever it's my turn to have the uncomfortable talk of split sheets and contracts, at the end of the day, I like to see the good in people and maybe a little bit naively, like Kelis, trust that the people I'm working with have 'common human decency.’ I always like to tell the writers and artists I work with: 'if you succeed, I succeed, so let's do it together". Still, you know you have to thoroughly read those contracts and have a good lawyer on speed dial. Here's to hoping we won't need them that often someday.

Until next time!

Musically,

Nicole for Click Track