In the words of Queen Bey herself: “Monday, I’m overrated, Tuesday, on my d*ck! Flip-flop, flippy, flip-floppin’-*ss b*tch.”
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While fans impatiently await inevitably iconic visuals from Renaissance, the album inspired more haters to come out of the woodwork. This time it’s Right Said Fred, the ’90s one-hit-wonder behind “I’m Too Sexy.” Rolling Stone reports that Beyoncé clapped back at the duo’s false claims that she’s “arrogant” and sampled their song without permission.
Earlier this week, the washed-up brothers Fred and Richard Fairbrass told The Sun that they were the last to know that their hit song contributed to “Alien Superstar.” They even doubled down on the clout-chasing claims by bashing the Houston native’s character.
“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. But everyone else, Drake and Taylor Swift, they came to us,” the group said.
The pettiness and projection are real! Once again, it’s not the “Cozy” singer’s fault that the singers she sampled don’t own the rights to their music. If anything, the hypocrites seemed salty that she credited too many people, leaving them with a smaller cut of the royalties.
“To use our melody they need our permission so they send us the demo and we approve it and if so we get a co-write credit. With this Beyoncé thing there are 22 writers it’s ridiculous so we would get about 40p.
“The reason that is happening we think is because there is so little money now in the actual sales people like friends, golfing partners, engineers, bookers and the guy who brings the coke, they all want a cut,” the bitter brothers said.
First, they call her “arrogant,” and then they imply she uses coke. Did they run out of racism before they had a chance to call her “uppity,” too?
Beyoncé set the record straight about Wrong Said Fred in a statement to E! News. The seasoned professional came through with dates, details, and receipts to shut down the allegations.
“Permission was not only granted for its use, but they publicly spoke of their gratitude for being on the album. For their song, there was no sound recording use, only the composition was utilized,” the 41-year-old explained in a statement.
“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,” she continued.
Beyoncé even went above and beyond by giving the Fairbrass brothers “co-writer credit” on the song. Before the flip-flopping routine, they thanked Beyoncé for her generous gesture on Twitter in July.
The “erroneous and incredibly disparaging” must have touched Beyoncé’s last nerve because she rarely comments on controversies. When Kelis aired similar grievances about an interpolation of “Milkshake,” Beyoncé quietly removed that version from all streaming platforms. Fans and collaborators quickly dragged songwriter Diane Warren for shadily questioning the number of writers on Renaissance.
Now the Hive has its sights set on Right Said Fred over their fraudulent foolishness. Check out some of the reactions to the Queen’s diplomatic clapback.