Maybe Im playing devil's advocate here, but I do kinda get why she's upset just a tad bit.
I mean, think about it. If u have written, recorded songs and then signed a shitty contract and ur publishing rights were taken away, which does in fact happen way too often, I'd like for an artist that's a s big as Beyonce to just reach out and say 'Hey girl. Love this record. Wanted to flip it and do something fire with it.' I think that's all she would've wanted. And maybe she would've expressed to Bey what she had to go thru with Pharell and Chad and that wouldn't have made a difference anyway with her using the song, but reaching out would've still been a nice thing to do.
And listen, if Beyonce is out here doing background checks on people before she samples or works with them, which is what was reported, then if background checks were done on Kelis, then shit, a lil phone call shouldn't hurt. But again, Bey doesnt have to do shit. Still, I cant blame an artist for feeling some kinda way for having their blood, sweat and art taken away from them, and other ppl still profit from their art, and they can't even say 'Hey, love the song and wanna sample ur record.' Its pretty clear here that Bey went thru the legal steps to clear the song instead of thinking about the human aspect. Once again, she doesnt have to, but Kelis being one of her peers and not just some artist from the 60s she sampled, a nice lil phone convo would've been nice.
To find out ur art is sampled on twitter or some shit, after it was snatched away from you and u probably wont profit from it, must not be the nicest feeling.
