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Beyonce sued over Formation samples
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 10 February 2017
Beyonce is being sued by the estate of Anthony Barre, who built a following on YouTube under the moniker Messy Mya with his video posts. Barre was murdered in 2010.
The singer is accused of sampling Barre’s voice on her track ‘Formation’, which appeared on last year’s ‘Lemonade’ album. The video for the track includes footage of the Hurricane Katrina disaster and seemingly includes New Orleans native Barre saying lines including “What happened at the New Orleans” and “Bitch, I’m back by popular demand”.
Barre’s estate, mainly his sister, says that the rapper’s voice was sampled without permission, that he was not credited, and that the estate has received no royalties. The estate’s legal claim also says that efforts to contact Beyonce and her people have so far been unsuccessful. Both she and label Sony Music are being sued.
