Pharrell Explains Why He Didn’t Need Kelis’ Permission To Clear ‘Milkshake’ Sample For Beyoncé’s Song ‘Energy’

Pharrell recently took the time to address the controversy surrounding the 2022 sampling of “Milkshake” involving Kelis and Beyoncé.

In a recent conversation, the producer revealed that he hadn’t had a discussion with Kelis regarding the situation, but emphasized that he had every right to sample the legendary song. Pharrell consistently responded with a firm “no” when asked if he had spoken to Kelis since she publicly criticized him and Beyoncé for their alleged mishandling of the sample. When asked about the approval process the producer responses by saying; “I wish her the absolute best. But I wrote this song.”

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When asked whether he required Kelis’ consent to license samples from the song, he further elaborated: “Not on ‘Milkshake.’ It was me and Chad [who] produced it.” If you remember, Kelis expressed her frustration with Beyoncé and Pharrell following the release of Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” album, which included a sample of “Milkshake” in the track “Energy.”

“It’s not a collab it’s theft. My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all 3 parties involved is astounding… 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,” Kelis previously shared to her Instagram stories about the incident.

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“I was told we were going to split the whole thing 33/33/33, which we didn’t do,” she told the Guardian in 2020. She says she was “blatantly lied to and tricked” by “the Neptunes and their management and their lawyers and all that stuff.” She said she didn’t initially notice that she wasn’t getting paid properly for her work on her first two albums, both of which the Neptunes produced, because she was making money from touring “and just the fact that I wasn’t poor felt like enough,” she says.

“Their argument is: ‘Well, you signed it,’” she continued. “I’m like: ‘Yeah, I signed what I was told, and I was too young and too stupid to double-check it.’”