{"id":193072,"date":"2025-12-19T12:48:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T12:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/193072\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T12:48:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T12:48:09","slug":"alien-superstar-beyonces-parkwood-label-slams-renaissance-sampling-lawsuit-as-meritless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/193072\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Alien Superstar’: Beyonce’s Parkwood Label Slams ‘Renaissance’ Sampling Lawsuit As “Meritless”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Beyonce<\/a>\u2018s seventh studio album \u2013 the 2022-released \u2018Renaissance<\/a>\u2018 \u2013 may rank as one of the decade\u2019s favorite releases among industry critics and music lovers alike, but its overwhelmingly positive reception hasn\u2019t made it exempt from controversy.<\/p>\n

From accusations of ableism<\/a> in \u2018Heated\u2018 to criticism over its sample of The Clark Sisters\u2018 Gospel classic \u2018Center of Thy Will<\/a>\u2018 in \u2018Church Girl,\u2019 slams from\u00a0Kelis<\/a> and Right Said Fred<\/a> for alleged unauthorized incorporation of their respective hits in \u2018Milkshake\u2019 and \u2018I\u2019m Too Sexy,\u2019 and a copyright infringement suit over its lead track \u2018Break My Soul,\u2019 <\/a>\u2018Renaissance\u2019 tracks were riddled with challenges at the height of the album\u2019s popularity.<\/p>\n

Two years later, those hurdles show no sign of disappearing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In court documents obtained by Billboard<\/a> this week, lawyers for Bey\u2019s label \u2013 Parkwood Entertainment \u2013 motioned to dismiss a copyright lawsuit brought this summer by indie label Soundmen on Wax Records over \u2018Alien Superstar.\u2019<\/p>\n

Claiming to own the rights to the 1998 song \u2018Moonraker\u2018 (which the music megastar sampled as the \u2018Alien\u2019 intro), the indie record company does not deny Bey\u2019s team licensed the tune but argue they did so improperly.<\/p>\n

According to the plaintiff, the \u2018Moonraker\u2019 sample was licensed from John Holiday, the artist himself, but Soundmen claims they obtained the rights from him as part of a distribution deal 28 years ago and thusly should have been the ones to clear the sample for Bey.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Parkwood\u2019s lawyers clapped back by saying there\u2019s no paperwork documenting the supposed transfer of Holiday\u2019s rights, thereby absolving them of any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs plaintiff concedes, Parkwood obtained a master use and composition license for the relevant \u2018Moonraker\u2019 sample from Holiday,\u201d write the Parkwood lawyers who later called the suit \u201cmeritless.\u201d \u201cThat good faith, nonexclusive license prevails over plaintiff\u2019s alleged undocumented and undisclosed transfer, which was never recorded.\u201d<\/p>\n

At writing, Beyonce has not publicly made a statement about the legal matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beyonce\u2018s seventh studio album \u2013 the 2022-released \u2018Renaissance\u2018 \u2013 may rank as one of the decade\u2019s favorite releases…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":{"0":"post-193072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}