Beyoncé has recently come under fire for an ableist lyric on her song ‘Heated’ from Renaissance and Kevin Durant wants to give his thoughts.
Facing fan backlash for using ableist lyrics in her song ‘Heated,’ Beyoncé and her team elected to change the lyric in question. The Renaissance song, which was co-written by Drake, included the lyrics, “Sp**zin’ on that ass, sp*z on that ass,” towards the end of the song.
After her decision to replace the lyrics, many sites picked up the story including @hiphopnmore on Instagram. After the account ran the story the Brooklyn Nets NBA star, Kevin Durant, took to the comment section to share his opinion on the matter.
“#Beyonce was criticized for using an ableist slur on her new album Renaissance, on the song ‘Heated’. She has now agreed to change the lyric.
On the track ‘Heated’ which is co-written by #Drake, Beyoncé sings: “Sp***in’ on that ass, sp** on that ass,” towards the end of the song which came under attack. While “Spaz” is used to describe “go crazy” or “freaking out,” its origin is “spastic” which is used medically to describe the spasms one experiences from a condition like cerebral palsy. The term is sometimes used in a derogative manner to describe those with disabilities.
The singer’s publicist confirms to Sky News that the lyric will be updated soon and that Bey did not use the term “intentionally in a harmful way.””
Kevin Durant in the comment section responding:
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“This a joke lol”
While everyone has their own priorities, the amount of media coverage and fan outrage has far exceeded the response to musician Kelis’ claims that Beyoncé stole her work in the form of a sample that she was not given permission to use on Renaissance.
Kelis recently found out that her song ‘Get Along With You’ is sampled on Beyoncé’s track ‘Energy’ from her now-released album Renaissance. According to her statements on Instagram, she found out at the same time everyone else did, when the album leaked only days before its release.
‘Get Along With You’ is from Kelis’ 1999 debut album Kaleidoscope and was produced by The Neptunes. Kelis has repeatedly been exploited for her music and has struggled to gain ownership over her own work, even stating that she did not receive any money for her first two albums, both of which were produced by The Neptunes.
In addition, Kelis received no songwriting credits on either of the albums and when she chose to work with a variety of producers on her 2003 album Tasty, The Neptunes told the artist they would not work with her again. To add even more salt to the wound, in the songwriting credits for ‘Energy,’ her name appears to be missing while Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo are credited.
