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L’Antoinette Stines, a Jamaican dancer, choreographer, author, actor, and director, is suing Hollywood power couple Beyone and Jay-Z, for not crediting her for her part in their song Black Effect.
The papers were filed in federal court on Tuesday, June 16th, and later obtained by TMZ.com. Stines claims that Beyonce and Jay-Z sought her out in March 2018, to utilise her skills and contacts in the dance industry, to help them find the best possible dancers for a video promoting their tour.
From there, Stines was then asked by the couple to record her views on love. She claims she was told the recording would be used in the video ‘for promotional purposes’, and signed a contract from the couples lawyers on he day of the shoot, being told again that the interview would be used exclusively for promotion.
Stines was however shocked upon listening to the track, from Beyonce and Jay-Z’s album Everything Is Love, and hearing that the entire first minute of the song is her speaking in the interview.
She is now suing the pair for copyright infringement and violation of her right to publicity, as well as asking for damages, a writing credit on the song, the lack of which Stines said left her feeling ‘artistically raped’, and the royalties which would come along with the credit.
Rory StoneLove, a Jamaican music producer and sound system selector, is credited on the album, for the use of his vocals on ‘Summer’, so its odd, and unfortunate, that the couple decided not to, or overlooked, also crediting Stine.
Stine’s first bought the issue up two years ago, not long after the 2018 album released. She said ‘I just don’t understand why I wasn’t credited. They interviewed me when they came here earlier this year and I didn’t know it would’ve ended up on an album.’, also hinting that she was contemplating options to receiver her credit.
Beyonce and Jay-Z are yet to speak out on the lawsuit.