Beyoncé‘s new album Renaissance has been the music industry’s talk of the summer. As fans debate the singer’s new sounds, the album has also been perhaps Beyoncé’s most controversial release to date, with various people taking issue with something on it. Beyoncé has corrected course concerning some parts of the album, while the Beehive has taken care of other critics. In its first week of release, here are the top five controversies surrounding Renaissance.
1. Diane Warren accuses Beyoncé of having too many songwriters
Famed songwriter Diane Warren appeared to throw shade at Beyoncé’s writing with an Aug 1 tweet, asking “how can there be 24 writers on a song,” an apparent reference to the extensive credits on the song “Alien Superstar.”
How can there be 24 writers on a song?🙄
— Diane Warren (@Diane_Warren) August 1, 2022
This prompted a full-on defense from the Beyhive as well as singer-songwriter and Beyoncé collaborator The-Dream, who rebuked Warren with a history lesson on Black music and sampling, prompting Warren to clarify that she didn’t mean any disrespect.
You mean how’s does our (Black) culture have so many writers, well it started because we couldn’t afford certain things starting out,so we started sampling and it became an Artform, a major part of the Black Culture (hip hop) in America.Had that era not happen who knows. U good?
— MUSIC ICON THE-DREAM (@TheKingDream) August 1, 2022
2. Kelis accuses Beyoncé of stealing from "Milkshake"
Speaking of album credits, Kelis went after Beyoncé for using an interpolation of her hit song “Milkshake” on the Renaissance track “Energy” without asking for Kelis’ permission or even giving her a heads-up about the sampling. Although Beyoncé never directly responded to the callout, Rolling Stone reports that Beyoncé has altered the track on streaming services to remove the sample.
3. Fox News goes after Renaissance's lyrics and style
As has often been the case with Fox News, conservative commentators found fault with Beyoncé’s lyrics. Fox News host Brian Kilmeade did a segment on the album’s controversy and used the opportunity to denounce the “filthy terms for male/female genitalia” and other explicit lyrics on the album. The host said that as a parent, Beyoncé should tone down her lyrics. As expected, fans came out strongly against the conservative commentator.
The only thing Kilmeade considers vulgar is a black person with money. pic.twitter.com/N31eedaj4E
— UpNorthDem (@badgerblue2) August 4, 2022
4. Beyoncé used an ableist slur but quickly removed it
The Fox News story on Renaissance was in connection to a more legitimate controversy in which the singer was called out for using an ableist slur. Like Lizzo before her, Beyoncé was slammed for using spazz, a term that is often used to mock people with cerebral palsy. Again, like Lizzo, Beyoncé quickly apologized for using the term, expressing her previous ignorance of its offensive meaning, which prompted her to alter the lyric in her song.
5. Monica Lewinsky requests a lyric change
The debate over Beyoncé’s lyrics led to a surprise appearance by Monica Lewinsky. The former White House intern entered the conversation to suggest that Beyoncé change a reference to her sexual encounter with then-President Bill Clinton. The offending lyric does not appear on Renaissance, but rather on Beyoncé’s song, “Partition,” which was released in 2013. Although Lewinsky has become popular for her posts on social media, this one largely led to a dragging from Beyoncé fans.
None of these controversies seem to be impacting the popularity of Renaissance, which has debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 charts. The album is the biggest release by a female artist this year, and the singer’s seventh consecutive number 1 solo album. With this level of popularity, people will be talking about Renaissance for some time, controversy or not.
