Beyoncé’s dance album Renaissance wouldn’t be complete without some Jamaican influence and a little bit of drama. For Track 5, “Energy,” Beyonce got Beam, the son of Jamaican music legend Papa San to bring some vocal flavour. The track has been a point of controversy due to Kelis saying Beyoncé sampled her song without permission. “Energy,” samples Kelis’s “Get Along With You,” a track that was originally produced by The Neptunes.
Kelis, a former Neptunes artist says they should “have the common sense and decency to reach out, a manager, an agent anybody should be like heads up this is what we are doing even if you are gonna do it anyway.”
Kelis is credited on the song although only Pharrell and Chad Hugo are credited as writers on the original.
#UPDATE: After the full album credits were released it was discovered that the song interpolates “Milkshake” and it wasn’t as Kelis has inferred but after listening to the track, Kelis took to instagram to further Chastise the Queen Bee’s creative process.
She posted on Instagram, “I just heard the record everyone is saying has my sample . But it’s beyond this song at this point . This was a TRIGGER for me . Milkshake alone is one of the most licensed records of our generation. I am a creator , I’m an innovator, I have done more then left my mark on an era of music and style that will go down in history . But there are bully’s and secrets and gangsters in this industry that smile and get away with it until someone says enough is enough . So I’m saying it today . I’m coming for what’s mine and I want reparations . Peace .”
“Energy” also samples Big Freedia’s 8 year old track “Explode” and was produced by Skrillex, Al Cres, Beam, and Beyoncé.
Track 10 “Move,” features Grace Jones and Tems.
The 3:23 minute track sounds a similar to Beyonce’s “Run The World” with a celebration of feminine power.
Both Beyoncé and Grace is heard singing , “Brukup, it’s Brukup, its Brukup (Brukup)
Humble, like we pon the come up (Hm)
Don’t make it turn into trouble
‘Cause we coming straight out the jungle (Grace)
Brukup, it’s Brukup, its Brukup (Grace Jones)
Humble, like we pon the come up (Grace Jones)
Don’t make it turn into trouble
‘Cause we coming straight out the jungle.”
Tems brings her golden girl Afrobeats magic and her raspy voice, “Move, move, move, move / Yeah, you gotta move, move / Anything you do / Will be held against you / You have to move, move, move, move / Skrrt off, make room / Stampede coming through / Big boss on the mood.”
Jones the former Island Records singer, actor and model has not released music since her 2015 Disco three albums box set.
Her music career started in 1977, and she quickly became a high-profile figure of New York City’s disco scene. In the early 1980s, under the guidance of Chris Blackwell she moved away from pure disco and incorporated reggae, funk, post-punk, and pop music, frequently collaborating with both the graphic designer Jean-Paul Goude and the musical duo Sly & Robbie. She has several Top 40 entries on the UK Singles Chart with “Private Life”, “Pull Up to the Bumper”, “I’ve Seen That Face Before”, and “Slave to the Rhythm.”
In Chapter 11 of Chris Blackwell’s Memoir: The Islander, My Life In Music And Beyond he spoke of how he first saw a her in New York and then discovering she is Jamaican: “an incredible picture this striking woman, holding a microphone and balancing unnaturally on one leg.”
Blackwell says upon meeting her he thought, “Grace was a more Uhuru than Disco”
Among her popular roles an actress; Zula in the fantasy-action film Conan the Destroyer (1984) alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sarah Douglas, and subsequently appeared in the James Bond movie A View to a Kill (1985) as May Day, and starred as a vampire in Vamp (1986); all of which earned her nominations for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 1992, Jones acted in the Eddie Murphy film Boomerang, and contributed to the soundtrack. She also appeared alongside Tim Curry in the 2001 film Wolf Girl.
In 2016, Billboard ranked her as the 40th greatest dance club artist of all time.
Beyoncé previously did a song of the same name for the Dream Girls motion picture soundtrack with Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose.
Beyonce’s Renaissance is currently No. 1 in 59 countries on iTunes.
