Beyoncé Calls Out White Man For Saying She Stole ‘Lemonade’ Visuals

Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty

Beyoncé has been called out for copying others before, but this time, she’s not having it.
In June filmmaker Matthew Fulks filed a lawsuit against Beyoncé, Sony, Columbia, and Parkwood Entertainment over the Lemonade film. In it Fulks claims scenes from the visual album were directly taken from his short film Palinoi; with still comparison images as evidence.

As reported by Pitchfork, Fulks claimed that after being contacted with the opportunity to work with Columbia artists MS MR, a link to his short film was sent to Columbia Records’ Bryan Younce. In July 2015, Younce sent Fulks a note inviting him to submit a video treatment for consideration by Columbia. Later that year, filming began for Lemonade.
Several scenes including the parking lot, field of grass, and red light car moments appear to be similar to Fulks.
Lemonade list seven people in its directing credits including Queen Bey herself, in addition to Melina Matsoukas and Swedish director, Jonas Åkerlund.
On Friday, in a rebuttal to Fulks suit, Beyoncé’s camp claims both films have two totally different narratives.
As noted by TMZ who obtained the documents, she says the differences couldn’t be clearer —Lemonade portrays “an African-American woman who progresses through stages of suspicion, denial, anger and, ultimately, reconciliation in her relationship.” On the other hand, she says Palinoia is about a “white man who is distressed in the wake of a failed relationship.”
Not gonna lie… the still images do look very similar. And it’s even more damning that Fulks was approached by Columbia for a video treatment right before filming began.
We’ll see where this case goes. But in the Queen’s defense, nothing under the sun is new, including inspiration for music.