As far as Kelis is concerned, "nobody cried" over Beyoncé's removal of "Milkshake" interpolation from Renaissance

When it comes to Renaissance criticism, Beyoncé has favored quietly removing certain samples or lyrics over making public statements. First, she changed a lyric some fans deemed ableist, and yesterday, she removed an interpolation of Kelis’ “Milkshake” that the artist claims Beyoncé never consulter her on. But her legions of fans (collectively known as the Beyhive) tend to take on a different strategy—one Kelis has been quick to call out. The artist expressed some of her feelings on the controversy post-removal in the comments section of a new post on her official Instagram.

Ironically enough, the August 3 post where the drama grew heated was a largely inoffensive (and downright positive) post. Kelis shared a selfie of herself wearing shocking red, captioned with the self-love mantra: “Born in the heat of summer. I am my own validation . To all my beautiful AUGUSTANS, good morning.”

However, a quick scroll to the comments revealed a very different energy, as some Beyhive members criticized Kelis for calling out Beyoncé (and seemingly worse in their eyes, receiving a response by way of Beyoncé editing the track) “You happy girl? Now u irrelevant again,” one commenter sneered. Kelis took no time offering her honest response: “Yes I am actually. lol nobody cried.”

In the comments, Kelis also expressed her shock at the intense, and often vicious, unionizing efforts of Beyonce’s fan base. “i ain’t never seen folks go so hard for someone that they never met or know personally. It’s got cult written all over it,” Kelis responded to one sympathetic comment accusing the Beyhive of acting “straight crazy.”

At the end of the day however, Kelis appears unconcerned about Beyoncé fans wishing her a fast ticket to irrelevance. The way she sees it, she got her wish for “Milkshake” justice while bringing up a valuable industry conversation: “I said what needed to be said. #iwin.”