Beyoncé’s Rep Defends Superstar After Erykah Badu Questions Her New Album Cover and Asks JAY-Z to ‘Say Somethin’

Beyoncé and Jay-Z on December 2, 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa. PHOTO: KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY

The Grammy winner’s longtime publicist shared a montage of the musician with various braided hairstyles

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter is making waves ahead of its release date.

After singer Erykah Badu criticized the 42-year-old singer’s upcoming album Cowboy Carter cover art, the 32-time Grammy winner’s longtime publicist, Yvette Schure, defended the musician.

Schure shared an Instagram Reel on Wednesday that featured a montage of Beyoncé rocking braided hairstyles throughout her career. “She slays. She slays. Now. Then. Always. #criticswithoutcredentials,” Schure captioned the post.

The aforementioned post followed Badu’s social media uploads Wednesday questioning the Renaissance singer’s album cover for Act II: Cowboy Carter. In the recent album artwork posted on Wednesday, Beyoncé is naked with just a sash hanging across her chest and hips. The sash reads, “Act II Beyincé,” on a white piece of fabric with both blue and red hems.

Her hair is styled in a braided look, with red and white beads at the ends of her bangs. The mother of three’s pose resembled the stance of the Statue of Liberty as she held a lit marijuana cigarette.

Badu, 53, reshared Beyoncé’s album art on her Instagram Stories on Wednesday afternoon and wrote, “Hmmm.” This post seemingly alluded to Badu’s affinity for the braided hairstyle with beaded bangs.

Erykah Badu on November 30, 2023 in Berlin, Germany. ANDREAS RENTZ/GETTY

After Badu shared the Story, she turned to X (formerly known as Twitter) to recruit help from Beyoncé’s husband, JAY-Z.

“To Jay Z . Say somethin Jay. You gone let this woman and these bees do this to me ?? 😆,” she wrote in the post.

To Jay Z . Say somethin Jay . You gone let this woman and these bees do this to me ?? 😆 pic.twitter.com/oxNhNgvfWp

— ErykahBadoula (@fatbellybella) March 20, 2024

The Wednesday album art follows the singer’s first peek at the upcoming album’s artwork, which she shared on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Beyoncé shared a “10-day countdown until the release” of her project, which was inspired “years ago.”

The Lemonade singer said she was inspired after an experience she had “where [she] did not feel welcomed.”

“But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of country music and studied our rich musical archive,” she wrote. “The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me.”

Beyoncé and Jay-Z on February 04, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY

“My hope is that years from now, the mention of an artist’s race, as it relates to releasing genres of music, will be irrelevant,” continued the singer.

Cowboy Carter is set for a March 29 release.