Beyoncé is being accused of ripping off the artwork of Japanese designer Hajime Sorayama.
Sorayama took to Instagram Monday to claim the Grammy winner, 42, did not ask him for permission before allegedly using his futuristic sketches and ensembles as part of her “Renaissance” tour visuals.
“Yo @beyonce 🤘 You should have asked me ‘officially’ so that I could make much better work for you as like my man @theweeknd ✊,” Sorayama captioned a five-photo slideshow that compared his art to some of her performance graphics and outfits.
The first picture showed Beyoncé’s face on a massive screen on one of the several dozen stages on which she performed her 56-stop show.
In the shot, the “Break My Soul” singer — whose album and tour aesthetic was mostly silver — was seen sporting a chrome, alien-like headpiece that swooped down on her forehead and featured pointy cylinders over her ears. She accessorized the robotic look with silver lip rings.
The second picture in Sorayama’s post showed that same image of the pop star on a T-shirt.
The last three photos were of illustrations showing women wearing strikingly similar headpieces along with matching geometric getups resembling fitted tin suits.
“You don’t own the Robot Hyper Feme Genre,” one critic remarked beneath the upload. “Also, the album, artwork, concert, movie came and went. Why are you speaking about it now.”
“I understand you feel like your art has been imitated and copied by her but this visual has been out for months (6+ months) so to now have outrage about it. Seems like a reach for something or a grab at something,” another person echoed, referencing the since-ended world tour that ran from May to October.
Like many others, this particular social media user pointed out that Sorayama and Beyoncé likely both drew inspiration from the 1927 German expressionist science-fiction silent film, “Metropolis.”
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“Metropolis has been imitated by so many people,” the commenter argued. “To have this image of her be picked a part when a headpiece like the one above has been used by so many people known and unknown to the masses is crazy. Well wishes.”
Another netizen snarkily asked Sorayama, “You’re the Director of (1927)Metropolis Film?…”
But others had his back, with one particular defender writing, “The amount of people essentially being like ‘boo hoo cry about it’ on this post when point blank period someone is benefitting off an image that someone else spent a majority of their life building is CRAZY.
“Yes, Metropolis is source inspo, but Hajime Sorayama has quite literally been a master and icon in the art and k!nk world for time, and Beyonce is 10000% referencing it. Y’all need to get out of the bee hive and touch grass.”
It’s unclear if Sorayama plans to take legal action.
Reps for the “I’m That Girl” hitmaker did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.