Beyonce seems to believe it's okay that her hit, "Formation," used a sample of a dead New Orleans rapper ... because she only used a tiny bit of his voice.
Beyonce just filed a response to the lawsuit from the estate of Anthony Barre -- and in the docs, her lawyers say the use of Anthony's voice is "reasonable and justified." You'll recall, Bey's hit track includes Anthony's voice saying "I like that," but his estate says it never signed off on the use ... and wants $20 mil in back royalties.
She's not giving up the dough that easily. According to the docs, Beyonce's team says Barre's estate has no case because the use of his voice was so minimal it doesn't require compensation. For the record, it's about 6 seconds long.
They also invoke the First Amendment as justification for using Anthony -- aka Messy Mya -- but that seems like a stretch, and makes us think Team Bey is just throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this lawsuit.
To be continued ...