The popular 1990s pop group seemed to be very happy with Beyonce sampling their music on her new album. Now, the group members are speaking out and BLASTING Bey, Media Take Out has learned.
On July 22nd the group warmly acknowledged a writing credit on Beyoncé‘s July 29th album, Renaissance.
But Media Take Out has learned that in a new interview with the Sun, the duo appeared to have flipped on Bey, calling her “arrogant” and claiming that she didn’t ask permission for using the melody to their hit, “I’m Too Sexy.”
The drama began even before the release of Renaissance, which used part of the hook of “I’m Too Sexy” on “Alien Superstar.” The official Twitter account for the brothers tweeted, “It’s nice to get writing credit on the new Beyoncé album.” The account also hit the like button on responses to their tweet offering congratulations.
But when speaking to the Sun, Chris and Fred Fairchild changed up. “Normally the artist approaches us,” they said, “but Beyoncé didn’t because she is such an arrogant person she just had probably thought ‘come and get me’ so we heard about it after the fact when you did. But everyone else, Drake and Taylor Swift, they came to us.”
They added, “To use our melody they need our permission so they send us the demo and we approve it and if so we get a co-write credit. With this Beyoncé thing there are 22 writers, it’s ridiculous, so we would get about 40p. The reason that is happening we think is because there is so little money now in the actual sales people like friends, golfing partners, engineers, bookers, and the guy who brings the coke, they all want a cut.”
“We can’t stop it. There is nothing we can do. It is shit,” they continued. “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. It’s best to let it go. If you’re not careful you spend your life looking back. We keep looking forward the whole time.”
Beyonce’s team has responded, issuing this statement to the media (including us):
“Permission was asked of their publisher on 11 May 2022 and the publisher approved the use on 15 June 2022. They were paid for the usage in August 2022.”
