Beyoncé Calls Out Right Said Fred For 'Erroneous' Sampling Accusations

Global superstar Beyoncé recently dropped a rare response to comments made by UK pop duo Right Said Fred which accused her of sampling without permission. The 28-time Grammy winner released her "Renaissance" album at the end of July, and the track list included several hit tracks.

"Alien Superstar," one of the more popular songs, reportedly used a sample of Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy." The sibling group was created in 1989 and consists of two brothers, Fred and Richard Fairbrass.

The brothers accused the 41-year-old of sampling their hit track without taking permission from them. RSF mentioned other artists who requested permission and called Beyoncé "arrogant" for the neglect. Drake notably sampled the song in "Way 2 Sexy," and Taylor Swift used the track in "Look What You Made Me Do."

Read on to learn more.

In response to Right Said Fred's accusations, Beyoncé released a statement that claimed that she had asked for permission and made payment for the sampling of the duo's hit track, "I'm Too Sexy." Beyoncé previously sampled the famous track for her hit song "Alien Superstar."

The "Love On Top" singer's team reached out to The New York Postand described the comments by the duo as "erroneous" and "incredibly disparaging." The statement read, "The comments made by Right Said Fred stating that Beyoncé used 'I'm Too Sexy' in 'Alien Superstar' without permission are erroneous and incredibly disparaging."

"Permission was not only granted for its use, but they publicly spoke of their gratitude for being on the album. For their song, there was no sound recording use; only the composition was utilized," the statement continued.

Further on, Beyoncé's statement revealed that after being granted permission to use the song by the British artists' publisher, payment was made as far back as August. "Permission was asked of their publisher on May 11, 2022, and the publisher approved the use on June 15, 2022. They were paid for the usage in August 2022," it read.

The Grammy winner's team further expressed that Right Said Fred was listed as a co-writer on the song and credited a large percentage of the track's copyright. "The copyright percentage of the Right Said Fred writers with respect to the use of 'I'm Too Sexy' is a substantial portion of the composition."

"Collectively," the statement concluded, "The Right Said Fred writers own more than any other singular writer and have co-writer credit. This accusation is false."

Earlier this week, The Sun reported that British artists Right Said Fred accused Beyoncé of being too "arrogant" to ask them for permission despite sampling their song "I'm Too Sexy." The artists claimed that other musicians interested in sampling the track reached out to them personally and requested permission.

"Normally, the artist approaches us, but Beyoncé didn't because she is such an arrogant person," they said. "She just had probably thought, 'come and get me,' so we heard about it after the fact when you did."

"Everyone else, Drake and Taylor Swift, they came to us," RSF said. They further clarified that in order for an artist to sample their song, they needed to send a demo of the track, and if approved, the sibling duo would be given co-write credit. "With this Beyoncé thing, there are 22 writers it's ridiculous, so we would get about 40 [pounds]."

RSF went on to describe the situation as "sh*t" and claimed that there was nothing that they could do besides letting it go. "You are going to get into a conversation with someone who has a lot more presence and power and money than we do. And that won't go well."

In a similar incident in July, Beyoncé was accused of sampling a song without permission by "Bossy" artist Kelis. The accusation was made before the Grammy winner released her "Renaissance" album, and the sampled song was reportedly Kelis' track "Milkshake" for Beyoncé's "Energy."

At the time, the "Milkshake" singer said she was unaware of the sample until the news was made known to the entire world. A Beyoncé fan page posted the information, and Kelis took to the comment section to accuse the 41-year-old of having no soul.

"Some of the people in this business have no soul or integrity," she wrote. Beyoncé notably gave Kelis song credit; however, the artist claimed that "It's not a collab; it's theft." Unlike her recent move to release a statement, the Grammy winner responded by simply taking the song off the album at the time.