Shenseea on Thursday night dropped her highly anticipated song “Lick” featuring Megan Thee Stallion, but the song’s familiar lines had fans calling out the artist for copying a popular soca song.
The only problem with that is Shenseea, and her production team got the sample signed off by Soca star Denise Belfon.
“Lick” was released after midnight on Thursday, and fans were quick to point out the similarities with Denise Belfon’s song “Put Your Back In It,” featuring DJ Flex and Equiknoxx.
Belfon’s song was released in 2019 but became wildly popular on Tik Tok in 2021 as many turned Belfon’s like into the “Put Yuh Back In It” challenge, which has millions of posts with the hashtag on the popular app.
Shenseea and Denise Belfon have responded, and Belfon posted a video of her song on her Instagram page as she smiled knowingly. She also shared several Instagram Stories on Friday morning of her fans telling her to claim royalties from the song.
Shenseea, for the most part, has not addressed the claims, but her manager Romeich Major seemingly dismissed the comments as he deflected to his artist’s social media numbers claiming she set the trends.
“She set trend she don’t follow. Big up @Shenseea her numbers don’t lie,” Major said as he pointed to Shenseea’s 5 million followers on Instagram and her millions of followers on Tik Tok and YouTube.
Denise Belfon shares a statement thanking Shenseea for sampling her song.
“I am very grateful and wish them the best of luck,” Belfon said in a statement. “Lets get it to number 1 on the billboard charts ladies. Soca influences the world! Everything is above board. I would like to send love and congrats to Shenseea, Megan Thee Stallion and their recording labels Interscope, “300 entertainment” Warner Music Group and their management teams, Mr. Romeich and Wassim Salxo “Sal” and the producers “Murder on the beats” for considering and using my song “work / put your back in it” on their mega hit Lick.”
The negative comments for the song have been shared under Megan Thee Stallion’s post as well as blogs like the Shaderoom and YouTube, where mainstream music fans shared their dislike for the explicit content and the perceived lack of creativity.
Still, there was a lot of positive feedback from some fans who commended the rising dancehall star for building alliances with overseas artistes like Megan Thee Stallion, Kanye West, and others she has worked with.
Shenseea’s “Lick” was produced by BoogzDaBeast, Joseph L’Étranger, and Murda Beatz.
