In the days since Beyoncé released her long-awaited seventh album, Renaissance, it’s been trending on Twitter for a number of reasons. While the disco-infused pop record is being praised by many for its hedonistic lyricism and upbeat, danceable melodies, other social media users are finding two of Beyoncé’s lyrical and musical decisions to be “problematic” and “offensive.”
Firstly, on the LP’s eleventh track, “Heated” (co-written by Beyoncé, Drake, and others), its initial lyrics featured the use of the word, “spaz,” which many disability advocates and activists deemed an “ableist slur” on Twitter soon after the album release. The “s-word,” as many online referred to it, is often used to demean those with cerebral palsy, as some explained.
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Over the weekend, many Beyoncé fans acknowledged this, adding that the singer most likely used the word not with the intension of insulting disabled people, but rather, because it is used differently in African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), often synonymous with “freaking out.”
Ultimately, the Grammy winner showed that she listened to online fan discourse several days after Renaissance dropped, as in place of the “s-word” on “Heated,” Beyoncé can now be heard singing, “blast.”
Beyoncé is facing criticism for using an ableist slur in some lyrics on her new album, Renaissance.
The derogatory term, often used to demean people with spastic cerebral palsy, occurs twice in the song Heated, co-written by Canadian star Drake. pic.twitter.com/EbVUqc6DyF
— Capital Moments (@CapitalMoments) August 1, 2022
Last week, the Lion King star also came under fire after it was revealed that she used a musical sample from R&B artist Kelis without her permission on Renassiance‘s fifth track, “Energy.” In an Instagram comment, Kelis noted that her song “Milkshake” is interpolated on Beyoncé’s song.
When Kelis heard that her song was sampled on the track (without ever being listed as one of the composers, lyricists or producers), she dubbed this as “not a collab,” and added, “it’s theft.”
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While further expressing her disappointment in the fact that she was not notified by either Beyoncé or Pharrell Williams (who green-lit the sample), she wrote, “I heard about this the same way everyone else did. Nothing is ever as it seems, some of the people in this business have no soul or integrity and they have everyone fooled.”
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Several days later, if fans are to listen to the most updated version of “Energy,” Kelis’ “Milkshake” sample has been removed from the track entirely on Apple Music, Tidal, Spotify and YouTube.
