The singer got into a beef with Kelis for interjecting a portion of her 2003 hit “Milkshake” into “Energy” without giving her a heads-up. (Kelis is not the song’s writer.) “I heard about it the same way everyone else heard about it,” Kelis said in an Instagram comment. As of Wednesday, the interference had been removed. The song “Heated” originally featured lyrics that contained the same optimism that got Lizzo in hot water on Twitter just a few weeks ago. On Monday, just three days after the album’s release, it was reported that Beyoncé would be exchanging words. As of Wednesday, the song’s lyrics have been changed from “sp***in’ on that ass” to “blastin’ on that ass” on YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify (although the written lyrics on Spotify still have old version). Kelis’ situation is specific and probably more about her feud with Pharrell than her relationship with Beyoncé. But the insult to “Heated” is part of a long tradition of the retro song industry. It’s almost a right of passage – an artist writes a verse that ages badly and is eventually altered or removed entirely. In the past, this process could take years and the original versions would be kept on physical albums or previous song downloads. The changed lyrics would only be apparent on re-releases or when the song was played in concert. In the age of Twitter and Spotify, that response is as immediate as the reaction. Once a track is changed and re-released to streamers, this is the only version that will be released beyond the TikTok snippets and a handful of CD and vinyl copies. Kanye West took advantage of this flexibility in 2016 with his updates to The Life of Pablo. Beyoncé, one of the savviest artists in the business, knows that the faster she goes through edits, the less likely anyone will remember she changed in the first place. The changes also prompted Monica Lewinsky to suggest her name be removed from Beyoncé’s 2013 song “Partition.” The Beyhive was less amenable to this change.

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