Beyoncé’s “Alien Superstar” Faces New Legal Threat Over Sample

The copyright fight over the voice that opens “Alien Superstar” has already ended in federal court, at least in its current form. A judge dismissed the lawsuit against Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment in June, but not because the court decided who actually owns the sample at the center of the dispute. Instead, the case collapsed over whether the company suing Parkwood had the legal standing to bring it in the first place.

TMZ reports that Hirose Enterprises LLC sued over the spoken-word introduction taken from “Moon-Raker (Main Mix),” a 1998 recording by John Holiday, better known as Foremost Poets. The sample is immediately recognizable on Beyoncé’s Renaissance cut, beginning the song before its beat fully arrives. Hirose claimed it held rights to both the recording and composition and argued that Parkwood obtained permission from the wrong person.

According to Yahoo! Entertainment, Parkwood did license the material directly from Holiday. Court filings show that a written agreement executed on September 6, 2022, granted Parkwood nonexclusive permission to use “Moonraker” in “Alien Superstar.” That agreement came after Renaissance was released on July 29. Hirose’s position was that Holiday no longer had the authority to grant that license because he had transferred his rights years earlier.

That is where the dispute gets more complicated than a typical claim that an artist simply failed to clear a sample. Hirose alleged that Holiday transferred rights to Soundmen on Wax in 1998 and that those rights were later assigned again. Parkwood challenged whether Hirose could actually document that chain of ownership. In an earlier ruling, the court found that Hirose had not sufficiently alleged the written transfers required under federal copyright law.

The case ultimately never made it far enough for a judge to decide which side had the better claim to “Moonraker.” Hirose Enterprises filed the lawsuit on July 29, 2025, but its own amended complaint stated that the Florida company was not formed until August 6. U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi ruled that an entity that did not legally exist when the case began could not establish standing. On June 26, he dismissed the entire action.

Hirose reportedly tried to argue that a similarly named Delaware company held the copyright interest when the lawsuit was filed and could be substituted into the case. However, according to Scarsi’s ruling, no proper motion was filed to make that substitution. Once the court determined it lacked jurisdiction from the start, it did not reach the competing arguments over whether Parkwood’s license from Holiday was valid.

The dismissal was jurisdictional and therefore generally without prejudice, meaning the ruling itself did not settle the underlying ownership fight forever. As the case currently stands, Parkwood has reportedly defeated the lawsuit, and “Alien Superstar” has not been ordered off the market. Still, Hirose wants an injunction to halt distribution of the track. They're also seeking damages tied to the song's earnings.