Yet Another Lawsuit Filed Against Beyonce and Jay-Z

It looks like Beyonce and Jay-Z have run into some trouble. 
The stars have been named as defendants in a lawsuit filed against them by the Jamaican artist, Dr. Lenora Antoinette Stines. 

According to Stines, who’s a 68-year-old dancer and choreographer, she was asked to record a spoken-word segment which was strictly to be used only as promotional material for the Carters’ album, ‘Everything Is Love‘. This 2018 album, held a good 9 tracks. Of which, the Jamaican artist’s recording also ended up on the intro to the album’s track, ‘Black Effect’. 

 On streaming platforms, Stines’ name is not among the list of credited “Black Effect” writers. What she is credited under is the  “Additional Vocals” and “Associated Performer” categories. In a rather harsh statement, Stines emphasized that she felt “artistically raped” after discovering that she had been sampled and left uncredited on the song.  

Among the demands that Stines has made, is a writing credit on ‘Black Effect,’ a publishing percentage, and she’s also seeking damages totaling over $75,000.

A Look into Stines’ Spoken-Word Piece

Here’s a look at some of the lines from Stines’ spoken-word piece. You hear the choreographer speak over the gentle, building notes of a piano, before it segues into Jay-Z’s first verse. 

Can you tell us about love?
Hmm, well there’s love of children
Love of self
Love of God
Love of a partner
All of them have a different shape
But all of them is the same in the end
It’s about sensitivity, it’s about passion
It’s about unconditional giving of self to another person
And there’s love of humanity
That’s the love that is right now needed most  

Quite lengthy, isn’t it? And yet, this is barely half of the artist’s entire spoken-word piece. There has been no response from Beyonce and Jay-Z yet, but we’re curious to see how these events unfold. 

By: Nina Karun