Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment Sued Over ‘Alien Superstar’ Intro Sample

Beyoncé’s company Parkwood Entertainment is facing a lawsuit over a sample used as the introduction to her hit 2022 Renaissance track “Alien Superstar,” with an indie label saying the house musician who licensed his 1998 song “Moonraker” doesn’t actually own the rights.

The allegations came in a Tuesday (July 29) legal complaint against Parkwood, Sony, Warner Chappell and dance musician John Holiday, who goes by the stage names Foremost Poets and Johnny Dangerous. Beyoncé herself is not named as a defendant.

The federal lawsuit centers on the introduction to “Alien Superstar,” which peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022: “Please do not be alarmed, remain calm/ Do not attempt to leave the dancefloor/ The DJ booth is conducting a troubleshoot of the entire system.”

This intro is a sample from Holiday’s house song “Moonraker,” and Beyoncé’s lengthy Renaissance credits name Holiday as a co-writer. Tuesday’s lawsuit says Beyoncé licensed the sample from Holiday himself — but adds that he doesn’t own the track.

According to Shuji Hirose, the founder and owner of indie house music label Soundmen on Wax Records, he bought all the copyrights to “Moonraker” for a flat fee of $1,500 when his company released the song in 1998.

“Despite widespread domestic and international distribution and publication of the sound recording ‘Moonraker’ by Soundmen on Wax Ltd. since 1998, defendants Parkwood, Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Music Publishing opted to contract with defendant Holiday for a master use license of the sound recording ‘Moonraker’ to create the infringing derivative work, ‘Alien Superstar,’” writes Hirose’s attorney DaShawn Hayes.

Hirose says that if anybody has the right to license “Moonraker, it’s him. Because Beyoncé’s team did not clear the sample with Hirose, the label owner is now bringing claims for copyright infringement and seeking a portion of the royalties and sale profits from “Alien Superstar.”

The lawsuit also accuses Holiday of breach of contract, claiming he violated the terms of their 1998 distribution deal by licensing “Moonraker” to Beyoncé when he didn’t actually own the rights.

Reps for Parkwood, Sony and Warner Chappell did not immediately return requests for comment on Wednesday (July 30).

Beyoncé’s extensive samples and interpolations on Renaissance were a focal point of discussion when the dance album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in August 2022. Some artists celebrated their references on the record, like “Show Me Love” singer Robin S, while others, such as “Milkshake” hitmaker Kelis, were less pleased.

Last year, a little-known New Orleans group sued Beyoncé over the chart-topping Renaissance hit “Break My Soul.” That suit, which was quickly dropped, claimed the properly-cleared Big Freedia sample on “Break My Soul” copied lyrics from their own 2002 track “Release a Wiggle.”