Erykah Badu feels the stings of the BeyHive after some IG shade, asks Jay-Z to intervene

Erykah Badu took aim with her Mama's Gun at the wrong Diva-Best-Believa and now she's asking for help from Queen Bey's husband to protect her from the stings of the Hive.

Erykah Badu — neo-soul songstress, analog girl in a digital world, fashion icon — can basically say and do whatever she wants at this point. Doesn't mean she should, but she can. And in one of her wild romps through the internet, she happened upon a post for Beyoncé's vinyl cover for her upcoming album, Act II: Cowboy Carter.

The image featured Beyoncé naked, save for a red, white, and blue a sash bearing the family name Beyincé. But Badu took umbrage with Bey's hairstyle: long braids with colorful beads, which seemed a bit too similar to a look she's sported in the not-so-distant past. Badu reposted the Cowboy Carter image in her IG Stories, with the simple, shady caption of "Hmmm."

Now, the fact that anyone could catch wind of that slight snuggled amid Badu's dozens of other Stories including promos for her own weed tray and a Instagram Reel of a dog in shiny cowboy boots would be surprising...were this just "anyone." But this is the BeyHive. They can and will sniff out any negative Beyoncé commentary then hunt it down to the ends of the internet.

Badu found that out the hard way, taking to the social media site f.k.a. Twitter to try and get Bey's husband Jay-Z to do something about all these damn bees like she's Macaulay Culkin in My Girl.

"To Jay Z . Say somethin' Jay. You gone let this woman and these bees do this to me??" Badu tweeted with a laughing emoji.

This isn't the first time Badu has come for Beyoncé and what Badu assumed was Bey's appropriation of her style. Last summer, Badu accused Bey of jacking her big shiny hat game, remarking, "I guess I'm everybody stylist" in a similarly shady IG Story.

Though Jay-Z has yet to weigh in — and he will not as he's still on shaky ground with the BeyHive since Lemonade — Beyoncé's longtime publicist Yvette Schure fired off a shady Instagram post of her own featuring a slideshow of braided Bey through the years, accompanied by the caption, "She slays. She slays. Now. Then. Always. #criticswithoutcredentials."

Ladies, can't we all just braid along?

Related content:

• Beyoncé says Cowboy Carter was born out of experience where she did not 'feel welcomed' in country genre
• Saddle up, BeyHive! Here's everything we know about Beyoncé's Act II: Cowboy Carter
• Beyoncé's 'Texas Hold 'Em' drawing comparisons to Franklin theme song, composer calls it 'similar'