New Orleans group Da Showstoppaz is suing Beyoncé over her hit “BREAK MY SOUL,” alleging copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday (May 22) in Louisiana federal court, claimed the music icon sampled Big Freedia’s 2014 track “Explode,” which purportedly illegally used lyrics and melody from their 2002 song “Release A Wiggle.”

The plaintiffs, Tessa Avie, Keva Bourgeois, Henri Braggs, and Brian Clark, alleged that Beyoncé — along with Freedia, Sony Music, JAY-Z, and others — used their material without permission. Obtained by Rolling Stone, the legal filing stated, “Defendants used Plaintiffs’ words, melody, and musical arrangement from their copyrighted works to create an album as homage to ‘Uncle Johnny,’ who exposed the music and culture of the LGBTQ community of greater New Orleans.”

The suit also asserted that while Beyoncé and the other defendants have profited significantly from “Explode,” “BREAK MY SOUL,” and related projects, Da Showstoppaz received no acknowledgment or compensation.

Lawyers for the group stated, “The infringing phrase ‘Release yo’ wiggle’ and several other substantially similar phrases are featured prominently in the song and evenly spread out across ‘Explode’s’ two-minute and 47-second runtime. Any reasonable person listening to ‘Release A Wiggle’ and ‘Explode’ would conclude that the songs are substantially similar.”

They added, “The coined term and phrase ‘Release a/yo’ wiggle’ has now become closely synonymous with Big Freedia, thereby contributing to Big Freedia’s fame. However, Big Freedia did not compose or write the phrase, and Big Freedia never credited Da Showstoppaz as the source.”

“BREAK MY SOUL” came out in June 2022 as the lead single to Beyoncé’s RENAISSANCE. It was produced by Tricky Stewart, The-Dream, and the artist herself. Additionally, JAY-Z has a writing credit on the song.

The track became a fixture during Beyoncé’s “RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR” alongside other fan favorites like “ALIEN SUPERSTAR” and “CUFF IT.”