Kelis Calls Beyoncé's Fans 'a Joke' As They Swarm Her IG After Song Spat

Kelis called Beyoncé's fans "a joke" on Wednesday, as she clapped back at them for mobbing one of her Instagram posts following a spat over a track being sampled.

Beyoncé recently removed a sample of Kelis' 2003 hit "Milkshake" from her new album, Renaissance, after Kelis branded its use "theft," alleging that she had not been asked for permission to use it. Kelis also called Beyoncé's alleged actions "stupid and disrespectful."

The original version of "Energy" featured an interpolation from "Milkshake," in which Beyoncé, 40, sang a variation of the iconic "la-la, la-la, la" from Kelis' hit. In light of the fallout, this has since been removed without comment from Beyoncé.

However, it would appear that a faction of Beyoncé's devoted army of fans—collectively called the Beyhive—are not happy, as they swarmed Kelis' most recent Instagram post.

Kelis, who turns 43 on August 21, took to the image-sharing platform to post a series of photos of herself donning an eye-catching ensemble.

"Born in the heat of summer," the "Acapella" singer captioned the post. "I am my own validation. To all my beautiful AUGUSTANS, good morning."

While a large number of Kelis' supporters responded with positive comments, several members of the Beyhive bombarded the post with wasp icons, commonly used to represent the fanbase. Several others called Kelis "irrelevant."

As a host of personal insults rolled in from the detractors, one of Kelis' followers commented: "I'm starting to think the [Beyhive] is depressed just sad."

"They are a joke," mother of three Kelis responded.

Another follower commented that "Beyoncé fans are straight crazy… I ain't never seen folks go so hard for someone that they never even met or know personally. Mental illness is real. Just wow."

Responding to the comment, Kelis wrote that "it's got cult written all over it."

When one person wrote that "Beyoncé just made it right. Cut you off. No more drama," in reference to the removed sample, Kelis said: "lol yeah, [because] I said what needed to be said. #iwin."

Another fan asked Kelis why she didn't go after rapper Bia for sampling "Milkshake," prompting her to say in response that "it's all a problem. Every single time. But this was personal on many levels which people don't understand and I didn't care to go further into. But yes. It is all a problem that I am going to fix."

With Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, of hit-making duo The Neptunes, listed as the composers of "Energy," Kelis took aim at her former collaborators and Beyoncé in a pair of Instagram videos posted last week.

"The reality is that my real beef is not only with Beyoncé because, at the end of the day, she sampled a record, she's copied me before," Kelis said. "She's done this before, so have many other artists. It's fine, I don't care about that.

"The issue is that not only are we female artists, okay, Black female artists in an industry [where] there's not that many of us. We've met each other, we know each other, we have mutual friends. It's not hard. She can contact, right?"

Saying that reaching out is "common decency," she went on to allege that publishing rights on tracks she had written had been "stolen" from her.

"It's not about me being mad about Beyoncé," she continued, addressing "ignorant" social media users who she branded "sheep."

"She is one issue because it was stupid and disrespectful and she should've at least reached out," Kelis said of Beyoncé. "But the real issue is the fact that the people like Pharrell and like Chad, who…really is an amoeba and spineless. It's a miracle he can keep his neck up.

"Pharrell knows better. This is a direct hit at me. He does this stuff all the time, it's very petty… And the reality is that it's frustrating. I have the right to be frustrated. Why? Because no one had the human decency to call me, like, 'Hey! Yo! We'd like to use your record.'

"Which, by the way, the reason I'm annoyed is because I know it was on purpose… This was an on-purpose, direct hit, which is very passive aggressive. It's very petty, it's very stupid. And I'm gonna say what I have to say. I don't mince my words."

Addressing the Beyhive fanbase, she went on: "So all of you Beyoncé fans, knock yourselves out. I'm not mad like that."

"It's not about me being jealous," she added. "Jealous of someone using my song? That's the dumbest, most ignorant thing I've ever heard. Like, grow up."

Newsweek has reached out to representatives of Beyoncé and Williams for comment.