{"id":9116,"date":"2025-12-19T02:22:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T02:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/beyonces-label-fights-alien-superstar-sample-lawsuit\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T16:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:47:09","slug":"beyonces-label-fights-alien-superstar-sample-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/beyonces-label-fights-alien-superstar-sample-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s Label Fights \u2018Alien Superstar\u2019 Sample Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tBeyonc\u00e9\u2019s label and management company, Parkwood Entertainment, says in new court papers that it properly licensed the EDM sample that opens her 2022 Renaissance<\/em> track \u201cAlien Superstar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParkwood filed a motion on Wednesday (Dec. 17) to dismiss the copyright lawsuit brought this summer by indie label Soundmen on Wax Records, which claims to own the rights to the 1998 song \u201cMoonraker.\u201d Beyonc\u00e9 sampled the song as the introduction to \u201cAlien Superstar,\u201d which hit No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. \u201cPlease do not be alarmed, remain calm\/ Do not attempt to leave the dancefloor\/ The DJ booth is conducting a troubleshoot of the entire system,\u201d the spoken-word \u201cMoonraker\u201d lyrics read.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Legal\"<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s undisputed that Parkwood cleared the sample; court filings show that the company bought both a recording and composition license from \u201cMoonraker\u201d artist John Holiday in exchange for $10,000 and a 0.5% share of the \u201cAlien Superstar\u201d royalties. What\u2019s in question, rather, is whether Holiday was the correct licensing party.<\/p>\n

\n\tSoundmen on Wax claims it purchased the \u201cMoonraker\u201d rights from Holiday as part of a distribution deal back in 1998, and therefore it should have been the one to clear Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s sample. But Parkwood maintains in Wednesday\u2019s court filing that it followed proper procedure.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Parkwood\u2019s lawyers from Latham & Watkins, there\u2019s no paperwork documenting the supposed transfer of Holiday\u2019s rights to Soundmen on Wax. Without documentation, Parkwood says, it couldn\u2019t have been expected to know about conflicting claims to the \u201cMoonraker\u201d rights.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Beyonc\u00e9\"<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cAs plaintiff concedes, Parkwood obtained a master use and composition license for the relevant \u2018Moonraker\u2019 sample from Holiday,\u201d write the Parkwood lawyers. \u201cThat good faith, nonexclusive license prevails over plaintiff\u2019s alleged undocumented and undisclosed transfer, which was never recorded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParkwood argues that this glaring issue makes the whole lawsuit \u201cmeritless,\u201d and it should be easily thrown out. Sony Music and Warner Chappell, both named as defendants in the lawsuit as well, are backing Parkwood\u2019s motion to dismiss. Beyonc\u00e9 is not being sued.<\/p>\n

\n\tRenaissance<\/em> debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in August 2022 and was noted at the time for its extensive samples and interpolations. Some artists celebrated their references on the record, like \u201cShow Me Love\u201d singer Robin S, while others, such as \u201cMilkshake\u201d hitmaker Kelis, were less pleased.<\/p>\n

\n\tThese many samples spurred multiple lawsuits. In addition to the \u201cAlien Superstar\u201d claims, a little-known New Orleans group sued Beyonc\u00e9 last year over the chart-topping Renaissance<\/em> lead single \u201cBreak My Soul.\u201d That suit, which alleged the song\u2019s properly-cleared Big Freedia sample copied lyrics from a 2002 track called \u201cRelease a Wiggle,\u201d was quickly dropped.<\/p>\n


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Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s label and management company, Parkwood Entertainment, says in new court papers that it properly licensed the EDM sample that opens her 2022 Renaissance track \u201cAlien Superstar.\u201d Parkwood […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5223,7165,1288,1548,303,1307,7166],"class_list":["post-9116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-alien","tag-beyonces","tag-fights","tag-label","tag-lawsuit","tag-sample","tag-superstar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9412,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9116\/revisions\/9412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}