Justice For Kelis: One Serving Down, As Beyonce Controversy Leads To Kelis Streaming Bump!

Justice For Kelis: One Serving Down, As Beyonce Controversy Leads To Kelis Streaming Bump! 

"Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.

This week: Kelis sees gains for songs referenced (and not referenced) on Beyoncé’s new blockbuster, Swifties celebrate the official annual start of Folklore season, and an old song threatens to become Baby Keem’s biggest solo hit to date.

Beyoncé Controversy Stirs Up Kelis’ “Milkshake” and “Get Along With You”

No question that the most-discussed artist in the world this past weekend was Beyoncé, thanks to the Friday (July 29) release of her triumphant seventh official LP, Renaissance, which has received rapturous reviews and posted strong early consumption totals. Just behind her may have been Kelis, another crossover R&B star who broke out around the turn of the century, who publicly aired her grievances over Beyoncé borrowing elements from Kelis’ 2003 smash “Milkshake” for Bey’s own Renaissance track “ENERGY” without anyone coming to her about it first.

Kelis did not receive a writing credit on “Milkshake” – only producers Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams, who Kelis alleges “tricked” her into signing an unfair contract in her early career, are listed as writers on the track – and thus will not likely receive any proceeds from consumption of “ENERGY” for its interpolation. But there is a silver lining for her: streams of “Milkshake” were way up over the weekend. From last Wednesday, the day before Kelis’ posting on Instagram made the controversy public, to Friday, the day of Renaissance’s release, on-demand U.S. streams of the track climbed from 73,000 to 111,000, a gain of 51%, according to Luminate. (They remained at over 105,000 for Saturday, before falling to 87,000 on Sunday.)

More remarkably, that wasn’t the only Kelis song to see a big weekend bump: Her 2000 single “Get Along With You” rose from under 3,000 on-demand U.S. streams to over 66,000 along that same timespan, a staggering 2,516% gain. Why “Get Along With You”? Because of social media misinformation spread by numerous fan accounts (and eventually music news posts) about “Get Along” being the Kelis song “sampled” on “ENERGY,” before the song had even come out. The conflicting reports and ensuing confusion clearly sent listeners scrambling to both songs to try to parse any sonic similarities, leading to a mini-renaissance for Kelis on streaming services in the midst of the Beyoncé takeover." - Billboard.com