Yes, really.
It has been announced that Beyoncé is being sued for a whopping $20 million, for allegedly sampling a dead internet star’s voice in her new song without permission.
Anthony Barré, known by his stage name Messy Mya, was a New Orleans rapper and YouTube star who was shot dead in 2010 at just 22 years old.
With hundreds of thousands of views on his videos, he regularly uploaded clips of his own music, samples of which can apparently be heard in Beyoncé’s new song, Formation.
‘What happened after New Orleans? Bitch, I’m back by popular demand’ can be heard playing at the beginning of the Beyoncé track, a lyric taken from Mya’s video, Booking The Hoes From New Wildin. His voice can later be heard on the same track, one minute in, saying ‘Oh yeah, baby, oh yeah I, ohhhhh, oh, yes, I like that’ – a sample from his 2010 video, A 27 Piece Huh?.
Beyoncé’s Formation went on to become gold certified, but Anthony Barré’s estate has filed a lawsuit against her, reportedly asking for $20 million in royalties and other damages, for using snippets of the late rapper’s voice in her music without his permission.
The videos that the samples were taken from were uploaded just a month before Barré’s death, meaning the words in question were actually some of his last recorded.
Barré’s sister is reportedly not only seeking financial compensation, but also a credit for her brother as a writer, composer, producer and performer.
This isn’t the first lawsuit that Beyoncé has been confronted with over her album, Lemonade, with an independent filmmaker unsuccessfully suing her over the album’s visuals last year, something he claimed she had copied from his film, Palinoia.
