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

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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Watch Eminem’s Hilarious Outtakes From ‘Happy Gilmore 2’: ‘Put Some Respect on My Name, B—h’

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Eminem made a memorable cameo in Happy Gilmore 2, in which he played the role of Donald Jr. Now, Netflix has released the outtakes from his hilarious scenes, which Em posted to Instagram on Friday (Aug. 1).

In the sequel, Slim Shady pays homage to his character’s father — played by late comedian Joe Flaherty in the original film — by shouting “jackass” during Happy Gilmore’s (Adam Sandler) backswing.

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Instead of handling Donald Jr. himself, Happy Gilmore instructs his kids in the flick to take care of him, disposing of him in a nearby pond. Unfortunately, Donald Jr. meets his demise while attempting to wrestle with a family of gators.

“Come on, fake a— dinosaur, you ain’t got a d—k,” Em jokes while battling the alligators in the outtakes. “Put some respect on my name, b—h! F—k you, Detroit, what? I get some Advil, I’ll be back in 20 minutes.”

Fans seemed to enjoy seeing Eminem back in the acting world. “That was awesome! Detroit what,” one person wrote in the Instagram comments. “You should get out more man, do more of this kind of stuff. Us stans need MORE!”

Another added in his comment section: “You’re naturally funny! Please release the whole 1 hour video of you in Happy Gilmore!”

Happy Gilmore 2 hit Netflix on July 25. On the The Dan Patrick Show last month, Sandler revealed how he convinced Em to be part of the sequel.

“I love Eminem. I’m friends with Eminem, but I don’t want to bother the man,” he said. “And everybody kept saying, ‘Man, Eminem would be so funny in this part.’ I was like, ‘I don’t want to ruin this guy’s time. He’s hanging out. He’s in Detroit. He’s doing his life making records.'”

Eventually, Sandler caved after agreeing that Em would be a perfect fit for the role. “Let me bug Marshall and give him a call and say, ‘Dude, I know it’s a pain in the a—, but it’s pretty funny. You mind shooting out to us for a day?’” To which Eminem obliged and the rest is history.

Watch the outtakes clip below.

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A post shared by Marshall Mathers (@eminem)

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Stevie Nicks Postpones 2 Months of Shows Due to Shoulder Injury, Apologizes For ‘Inconvenience’

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Stevie Nicks has had a change of plans after suffering a recent injury, with the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman announcing Friday (Aug. 1) that her next two months of shows will be postponed as she heals.

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In a note shared to her social media accounts, Nicks’ team wrote, “Due to a recent injury resulting in a fractured shoulder that will require recovery time, Stevie Nicks’ scheduled concerts in August and September will be rescheduled.”

Noting that the star will proceed with her shows in October as scheduled, the message concludes, “Stevie looks forward to seeing everyone soon and apologizes to the fans for this inconvenience.”

Fans with tickets to any of the postponed performances are encouraged to hold onto their seats, as all previously purchased tickets will be honored at their corresponding rescheduled shows. More information can be found at point of purchase.

Nicks had been slated to perform in a handful of cities across the United States and Canada across August and September, including Detroit, Toronto, Boston, Cincinnati and Brooklyn, N.Y. All of the postponed shows have already been rescheduled to new dates in late October, November and the first couple of weeks in December, as listed in the rock star’s post and on her website.

The news of Nicks’ injury comes more than three months after she first announced her solo tour in April, writing at the time that she couldn’t “wait to share these nights with you.”

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer had also been supposed to tour with Billy Joel this year, but the Piano Man similarly had to cancel all of his 2025 and 2026 performances as he battles a condition called normal pressure hydrocephalus. In July, he provided an update on how he’s faring, telling Bill Maher, “I feel good … They keep referring to what I have as a brain disorder, so it sounds a lot worse than what I’m feeling.”

Nicks is currently working on a new album, her first in 14 years. The Grammy winner first revealed that she was getting back into the studio as she was being inducted into the Pollstar Hall of Fame.

“I call it the ghost record,” she said in her speech. “It just really kinda happened in the last couple of weeks because of, you know, the [Los Angeles] fires. I was sitting in a hotel for 92 days, and at some point during that last part of the 92 days, I said, ‘You know what? I feel like I’m on the road, but there’s no shows. I’m just sitting here by myself, because everybody else is at the house, doing all the remediations and everything, and it’s just me, sitting here.’ And I thought, ‘You need to go back to work.’ And I did.”

See Nicks’ post below.

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7 Best Moments From Dead & Company’s Kickoff Celebrating 60 Years of the Grateful Dead in SF

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Much has changed in San Francisco over the last six decades. But all these years later, the music of the Grateful Dead can still draw a significant crowd to Golden Gate Park, where the revered rock band played some of its earliest shows just blocks from the house on 710 Ashbury Street, where its members set up shop in the mid-1960s.

Only some of those founding members remain today — iconic frontman Jerry Garcia died 30 years ago, while bassist Phil Lesh passed away last October — but two surviving members, Bobby Weir and Mickey Hart, brought their decade-old outfit Dead & Company to Golden Gate Park on Friday (Aug. 1) night for the first of three shows celebrating 60 years since the Grateful Dead’s 1965 debut.

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Rounded out by John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti and Jay Lane, Dead & Company has become a live music juggernaut in its own right since its 2015 formation. In 2023, the year it staged its final tour, Dead & Company grossed $114.7 million across 28 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore; in 2024, it launched its Dead Forever residency at Las Vegas’ Sphere, grossing $131.8 million across 30 shows. (The band continued the residency in 2025 with 18 more concerts.) Along the way, Dead & Company has introduced a new generation of fans to the Dead’s music and subculture — while offering older Deadheads more opportunities to enjoy them.

This cross-generational appeal was on display in Golden Gate Park on Friday, where the jamgrass sensation Billy Strings — who was only 2 when Jerry Garcia died — opened the show for an audience that spanned from kids to old-timers who just might’ve been at the Dead’s earliest shows in the park in the mid-60s.

Here are some of the best moments from the first show of Dead & Company’s three-night run in Golden Gate Park. And when you’re done with that, here’s the complete setlist.

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