Just weeks after rapper Lizzo similarly modified lyrics to remove the same phrase, Beyoncé is eliminating an insensitive slur for handicapped people from a new song on her album “Renaissance.”
The phrase, which was not used maliciously, will be replaced, a Beyoncé spokesperson said in a statement to The Associated Press on Monday.
The word “spaz,” which is seen as a disparaging allusion to the medical term spastic diplegia, a type of cerebral palsy, is used in the song “Heated,” which was co-written with Canadian rapper Drake among other people.
In June, Lizzo took down the term from one of her songs, “Grrrls,” when disability rights activists objected to the lyrics. Lizzo said in a statement that she has never wished to encourage disparaging speech.
Disability rights activist Hannah Diviney said on Twitter that hearing the phrase used by Beyoncé “felt like a smack in the face to me, the handicapped community & the progress we attempted to make with Lizzo” after pointing out Lizzo’s lyrics that prompted the modification.