Beyonce has been named as a defendant in a new copyright lawsuit over the sample that opens Alien Superstar, the third track on her 2022 album Renaissance, Music Business Worldwide reported on August 12. The complaint, filed August 10 in the US District Court for the Central District of California, comes just over six weeks after a federal judge dismissed an earlier action over the same recording, in which Beyonce herself was not named.
The plaintiffs, Hirose Enterprise LLC and producer Shuji Hirose, say they own the rights to Moonraker, a 1998 recording by John Holiday performing as Foremost Poets, whose spoken-word introduction plays under Alien Superstar: "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." The complaint calls the recording "a fixture of house music" and its opening line "among the most recognizable spoken passages in the genre."
According to the filing, Parkwood Entertainment released Alien Superstar in July 2022 with no license at all for the Moonraker recording, then obtained one more than a month later from Holiday, who the plaintiffs say had already signed away his entire interest in the recording in a 1998 agreement paying him a flat $1,500 fee. The complaint says Holiday was paid $10,000 plus 0.5 percent of the song's royalties for the 2022 license, and alleges that Parkwood "exploited, and continue to exploit, the resulting infringing work worldwide" even after receiving written notice in early 2023 that the use was unauthorized.
The earlier lawsuit, filed by a different Hirose entity in July 2025, was thrown out in June after US District Judge Mark C. Scarsi found the company suing had not legally existed at the time it filed the complaint, so it had no standing. The judge never ruled on whether the sample was properly cleared, and the new complaint, filed by companies the plaintiffs say now hold the rights in order, is built to close that gap.
This time, Beyonce is named directly alongside Parkwood, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Music Publishing, W Chappell Music Corp. and Holiday, and the complaint says Alien Superstar and Moonraker were performed without authorization across both the 56-show Renaissance tour and the 32-show Cowboy Carter tour. The plaintiffs are seeking damages, an accounting of profits and a permanent injunction. Music Business Worldwide notes the case lands alongside other recent sample and copyright disputes in music, including a suit against Cardi B over "Enough (Miami)" dismissed in March and a case against Travis Scott, SZA and Future that its plaintiff dropped in June.
It comes days after MusicSuey covered Jay-Z joining Beyonce for a surprise Morning Dew (Donk) remix, part of a busy stretch of pop legal news.
The facts
- Beyonce is newly named as a defendant in a copyright suit over Alien Superstar's opening sample
- The sample is from Moonraker, a 1998 John Holiday recording
- The suit was filed August 10 in the Central District of California
- An earlier version of the case was dismissed in June for lack of standing
- Holiday was paid $10,000 plus 0.5% of royalties for the 2022 license
- Plaintiffs say his 1998 agreement paid him a flat $1,500 fee instead
- The suit covers both the Renaissance and Cowboy Carter tours
- Plaintiffs seek damages, an accounting and a permanent injunction
How this checks out
Developing
Reported by 3 independent outlets
A few outlets have it so far, short of the bar we set for confirmed.
Cited sources 3
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