Beyoncé will remove the word "sp*z" from her song 'Heated' after the lyric prompted backlash for being an "ableist slur".
This has all gone down less than two months after Lizzo also caused outrage by including the word in her song 'Grrrls', which begs the question: Why didn't Beyoncé catch this earlier?
The line in question from 'Heated' goes, "Sp*zzing on that ass, sp*z on that ass", but it's soon to be replaced.
A rep for Bey confirmed that "the word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced".
Fans were disappointed to hear the term on the star's long-awaited album 'Rennaissance', especially so soon after the Lizzo controversy.
"Feels like a slap in the face to me, the disabled community and the progress we tried to make with Lizzo," one tweet read. "Guess I'll just keep telling the whole industry to 'do better' until ableist slurs disappear from music."
The word 'sp*z' comes from the word "spastic", which according to some dictionary definitions, can be used to describe an 'incompetent or uncoordinated person" or someone who has lost "physical or emotional control".
It is widely considered an offensive and outdated way to refer to a person with cerebral palsy, as well as having other meanings.
"As a blind kid in public school bullies would call me 'spaz' before pushing me into the walls," one Twitter user said.
"I used to get called spaz purely because I was bullied. Not disabled. It was still a slur," said another.
"[Spastic] was used to describe people with tonic seizures, muscular spasms, and other neuro-muscular disorders. It is a pejorative term, even in the US, regardless of 'world experience'," wrote a third.
Despite there being plenty of evidence that the word has caused many people a lot of pain, some fans leapt to Beyonce's defence, insisting 'sp*z' didn't have negative connations in the US.
"Spaz is not a slur, not in the way Beyoncé and Lizzo used it. It’s slang that is referring to a type of jumpiness or general hyper-activeness," one tweet read.
"I'm sorry it’s a slur to y’all but it’s not to us and we never even heard of it being a slur but ma’am what your not about to do is think your going to bully Beyoncé like you did Lizzo the hive ain’t going," another angry Beyonce fan said.
C'mon, Bey-hive, if Queen B herself can acknowledge the word is offensive to some, you can too.
