Beyonce

A roundup of the songwriters who collaborated with Bey on 'Renaissance' -- and the songs that are sampled or interpolated on the album. By Joe Lynch ...

WRITTEN BY BEYONCÉ, DENISIA “@BLU_JUNE” ANDREWS FOR @NOVAWAV, BRITTANY “@CHI_CONEY” CONEY FOR @NOVAWAV, TERIUS “THE-DREAM” GESTEELDE-DIAMANT, LEVEN KALI, MIKE DEAN, ATIA BOGGS P/K/A INK, LEVAR COPPIN, SALIOU DIAGNE , RICKY LAWSON, DONNA SUMMER, GIORGIO MORODER, PETER BELLOTTE CONTAINS SAMPLE OF “COCAINE” WRITTEN BY TINO SANTRON MCINTOSH AND KILO AND PERFORMED BY KILO ALI. PUBLISHED BY OLIK MUSIC (BMI), SANTRON PUBLISHING (BMI) Renaissance was preceded by “Break My Soul,” a house-indebted anthem of resilience featuring frequent collaborator Big Freedia, which hit No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. WRITTEN BY BEYONCÉ, MICHAEL TUCKER, DARIUS DIXSON, MICHAEL POLLACK, DENISIA “@BLU_JUNE” ANDREWS FOR @NOVAWAV, BRITTANY “@CHI_CONEY” CONEY FOR @NOVAWAV, TERIUS “THE-DREAM” GESTEELDE-DIAMANT, RAPHAEL SAADIQ, MOI RENEE, ERIC SNEAD, JEREL BLACK, MICHAEL D COX , KEVIN MARQUIS BELLMON, ANDREW RICHARDSON, COUNT MAURICE "Thique" CONTAINS AN INTERPOLATION OF “OOO LA LA LA” WRITTEN BY MARY CHRISTINE BROCKERT, ALLEN HENRY MCGRIER AND PERFORMED BY TEENA MARIE. PUBLISHED BY MC NELLA MUSIC (ASCAP), MIDNIGHT MAGNET MUSIC PUBLISHING (ASCAP). CONTAINS AN INTERPOLATION OF “MILKSHAKE” WRITTEN BY PHARRELL WILLIAMS, CHAD HUGO AND PERFORMED BY KELIS. PUBLISHED BY WATERS OF NAZARETH PUBLISHING (GMR), EMI POP MUSIC PUBLISHING (GMR) AND UNIVERSAL MUSIC – CAREERS (BMI). CONTAINS A SAMPLE OF “EXPLODE” WRITTEN BY ADAM JAMES PIGOTT, FREEDIE ROSS AND PERFORMED BY BIG FREEDIA. PUBLISHED BY ADAM JAMES PIGOTT PUBLISHING DESIGNEE (BMI) AND GIRL DOWN (BMI). CONTAINS ELEMENTS OF “SHOW ME LOVE” WRITTEN BY GEORGE ALLEN, FRED CRAIG MCFARLANE AND PERFORMED BY ROBIN S. PUBLISHED BY EMI BLACKWOOD MUSIC INC (BMI) AND SONG A TRON MUSIC (BMI). CONTAINS A SAMPLE OF “EXPLODE” WRITTEN BY ADAM JAMES PIGOTT, FREEDIE ROSS AND PERFORMED BY BIG FREEDIA. PUBLISHED BY ADAM JAMES PIGOTT PUBLISHING DESIGNEE (BMI) AND GIRL DOWN (BMI). "Heated" Check out our ranking of the Renaissance tracks here and see which songwriters Beyoncé collaborated with on each of the 16 songs on Renaissance below. WRITTEN BY BEYONCÉ, RICHARD ISONG, ARIOWA IROSOGIE, DENISIA “@BLU_JUNE” ANDREWS FOR @NOVAWAV, BRITTANY “@CHI_CONEY” CONEY FOR @NOVAWAV, TEMILADE OPENIYI, RONALD BANFUL WRITTEN BY BEYONCÉ, DENISIA “@BLU_JUNE” ANDREWS FOR @NOVAWAV, BRITTANY “@CHI_CONEY” CONEY FOR @NOVAWAV, MORTEN RISTORP, RAPHAEL SAADIQ, TERIUS “THE-DREAM” GESTEELDE-DIAMANT, MARY CHRISTINE BROCKERT, ALLEN HENRY MC GRIER, NILE RODGERS "Cozy"

Kelis accused Beyoncé and songwriter-producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of “thievery” late Thursday after discovering a track on Beyoncé's highly ...

“Show Me Love” is credited to Allen George and Fred McFarlane — who, similar to the situation with Williams and Hugo, earned writing credits on the Beyoncé track. “I also know the things that were stolen. “I also know the lies that were told,” she continued. But early on in her career, she struck a deal with Williams and Hugo that she now considers to be unfair. Neither Beyoncé nor Williams and Hugo were any under legal obligation to contact Kelis before drawing from “Milkshake,” Bennett said, as Williams and Hugo, who produced the 2003 single as the Neptunes, were also the only songwriters listed on it. A common industry model, called out in recent years by Taylor Swift, is for the record label to own the masters and the songwriters the musical work.

Beyoncé herself might admit that her seventh solo album, Renaissance, is a mess. Conventional songwriting rules, polite-taste paradigms, and the best ...

“No one else in this world can think like me,” she says, a brag that is true for all of us, whether we embrace it or not, as we cut a trail in this world. Somehow she has found a way to make messages of individual empowerment, which can be so trite in pop, jolt again. Conflict arises only in flickering mentions of haters and “Karens” who have “turned into terrorists.” Some boasts are corny; some are instant classics; many are both. On the opener, “I’m That Girl,” fragmented noises cut in and out, accelerating and decelerating in frequency, as if controlled by someone revving an engine. Instead, she has re-cemented her status as one of America’s edgiest superstars, a sorcerer of synthesis and excess. The pulsing beat of Renaissance almost never pauses, though it does morph—from the pistonlike pumping of house and techno to the snapping and swaying of Afrobeats to the tick-tick-boom of various dance- rap styles that serve the almighty twerk.

If the music is an homage to uninhibited movement, the still images are steeped in fashion history, high maintenance glamour and perfectionism.

But there’s no denying that these pictures also express a delight in the male gaze — as well as the female gaze, the non-gendered gaze and the gaze of anyone who’d like to look. The clothes tell the chaotic story of an era in pop culture when people were determined to have a good time. The dancing endured in the face of the AIDS epidemic, homophobia, economic peril and dire crime statistics. And after years of track pants and yoga pants and dressing only from the waist up, she also presents her audience with fashion that is turned out, spit polished, cinched up and exhausting. The world has borne witness to the seventh coming of Beyoncé in the form of her studio album “Renaissance.” The 16 tracks are an expression of her moods and desires during the height of the pandemic when she decided to record music that allowed her to dream and to escape, as she wrote on her website. Back then, the pleasure bubbled up despite — and perhaps because of — dire circumstances. The posture makes one think of the fashion photography of Helmut Newton and Jean-Paul Goude. There are spangled ones and molded ones and one that is really just a bit of silver chain and rhinestones. Beyoncé sits atop it wearing chains and spikes and wielding a white hat; it calls to mind the pop culture moment from 1978 when Bianca Jagger rode a white horse into Studio 54 and helped cement the night club’s reputation as the era’s non plus ultra location for decadence and debauchery. There’s more Alaïa on display in the form of a custom acid-green lace dress with Mongolian lamb trim. She doesn’t communicate that much in a glance that’s caught in the click of a shutter. Photographs on her social media aim to evoke those emotions in concrete terms — in the form of bodysuits, disco balls, hologram horses and bedazzled saddles.

Hear tracks by Rosalía, Brian Eno, Robert Glasper and others.

Bobby Krlic, who usually records as the Haxan Cloak, has composed the score for a new Amazon series, “Paper Girls,” and “KJ’s Discovery” is from its soundtrack album. “Feathers,” from an album due in October, reveals the band’s new mastery with a clanging, lurching, meter-shifting song that enjoys programmed, multitracked precision even as Eve Alpert sings about spontaneity. Plains is a new group formed by Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield and the underrated singer-songwriter Jess Williamson — two Southern-born musicians who began their careers in the indie-rock world but whose more recent albums have reconnected with their country roots. “There Were Bells” is a threnody for planetary extinction from Brian Eno’s coming album, “Foreverandevernomore.” The LP, he has said, is about “our narrowing, precarious future,” and it returns to songs with lyrics and vocals after more than a decade of primarily instrumental and ambient works. Pandemic malaise and endurance are the foundation of “All Masks,” which looks back on years of “all masks, no smiles.” Over a murky, oozy track with synthesizer chords that climb patiently only to fall back to where they started, Masego sings about “Looking like you’re in disguise every day/Breathing my own breath.” “All Masks” comes from an expanded version of “Black Radio III” due this fall, continuing the keyboardist Robert Glasper’s decade-long series of “Black Radio” albums that merge R&B, hip-hop and jazz. Rosalía sounds aggressively unbothered on the studio version of “Despechá,” a fan favorite she’s been playing live on her Motomami World Tour. Influenced by Dominican merengue, “Despechá” is a quintessential summer jam, built around a buoyant piano riff and an insistent beat.

Ignore the leaks — Beyonce's seventh studio album “Renaissance” has officially arrived. As hinted, it's an all-encompassing album for the dance floor, ...

More than 20 years later, Beyoncé's version remixes it with an eerie bassline that keeps that same emotion, comparing her addictiveness to that of the powder with lines like “I’ma make you go weak for me / Make you wait a whole week for me / I see you watching, fiending / I know you want it, scheming.” Beyoncé travels across the realm of Black music on “Renaissance,” as she’s done throughout her catalog. As a whole, the song turns the church on its head, opening with traditional gospel before trapping out the drums to let herself go, “Church girls acting loose, bad girls acting snotty,” she sings on the chorus while instructing you to drop it low and dance as you please. “And a special thanks to my beautiful husband and muse, who held me down during those late nights in the studio.” Beyoncé has shown love to her children across her catalog, but on track two of “Renaissance,” she honors her own body for bringing them into the world. She credited him for exposing her to the sounds that inspired “Renaissance.”

But in her seventh studio album, "Renaissance," she has subverted the public's perception of her hitmaking history. Six years since her Grammy award-winning“ ...

Fans celebrate the queer inspiration the music draws from as well as the Black LGBTQ artists who are featured on the album.

“This is Black culture, not the culture of kicking people out, not excluding people,” Tinsley said. “Break My Soul,” which has been celebrated as a gay anthem, was Beyoncé’s second collaboration with Big Freedia. She previously paired up with the rapper for “Formation” in 2016. The 16 tracks in “Renaissance” draw from house, disco and bounce music, genres that hark back to underground ballroom culture from the 1970s. They contrasted this joy with the political moment: “Renaissance” comes at a fraught time for the LGBTQ community amid an unprecedented onslaught of anti-LGBTQ legislation as well as recent protests and attacks at Pride events. “Thank you to all the pioneers who originate culture, to all of the fallen angels whose contributions have gone unrecognized for far too long.” In an era that has left LGBTQ rights vulnerable, Beyoncé has reaffirmed her support of the queer community.

Beyonce, seen here performing in 2016, just dropped her new album. (CNN) You should know by now that a Beyoncé album release is ...

Witnessing his battle with HIV was one of the most painful experiences I've ever lived." "I appreciate you for calling out anyone that was trying to sneak into the club early," she wrote. "He was brave and unapologetic during a time when this country wasn't as accepting. This is a celebration for you." So much to digest, so much to dissect and so much to dance to. "I've never seen anything like it.

Beyoncé wears Gucci, Mugler, and Schiaparelli for the art released with her newest album, 'Renaissance.'

Then, wearing a custom Alaïa dress, Beyoncé seems to levitate in one of the photos, like the goddess she is. Her tiny sunglasses sit low on the bridge of her nose and a microphone docked in a pistol-shaped holder lays just beside her on the crushed red velvet of the seat. Thankfully, this is only part one of a three-part drop (and we are hoping that the other parts include a visual album.) All the while, Beyoncé has been quietly teasing us with visuals — decked out in the likes of GCDS and Harris Reed — on her Instagram for a while now.

Chicago house, hyperpop, classic '70s disco: The pop star's new album is a tour through some of the genre's most well-known touchstones as well as more ...

Sure enough, the song’s writing and production credits include an artist influenced by those musicians: Chauncey Hollis Jr., a.k.a. Hit-Boy, who produced a dubstep-inflected hit on Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Watch the Throne” (2011). ( Sophie, the producer known for exhilarating hyperpop who died in 2021, came from this camp.) “All Up” is futurist robo-pop, with a sub-bass line that seems to be snorkeling under the speakers rather than emanating from them. But the main melodic phrase from “I Feel Love” sounds like it’s being played on the Korg keyboard that anchors “Break My Soul,” subtly tying two eras together in a third one. On Thursday, before the release of “Renaissance,” the singer and songwriter Kelis spoke out on social media, saying those credits were for a sample of one of her songs (it turned out to be an interpolation of “Milkshake,” from 2003), and that she hadn’t given permission for its use. “Problem” also opens with orchestral stabs, à la Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force’s landmark electronic-rap track “Planet Rock” — or, even more aptly given the title and lyrical theme, Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation.” A similar situation arose with the album’s lead single, “Break My Soul,” which is indebted to the central Korg motif from Robin S.’s pop-house hit “Show Me Love.” But whether her 1992 remix was sampled was initially unclear, and for the first week of the song’s release, the credits shifted. The heavy-fog low end of “Just Want Another Chance” was often repurposed by London bass-music styles like jungle, drum & bass, U.K. garage and dubstep — what the writer Simon Reynolds has called the “hardcore continuum” of Black British musical styles from urban areas that took root on London pirate radio. The song also has writing credits for Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, the songwriting and production duo the Neptunes, known for their work with a wide swath of singers and rappers starting in the 1990s. (For an example from the ’90s, see Oval’s album “94diskont,” or the compilation “Clicks + Cuts,” released in 2000.) There’s another direct callback on “Cuff It”: The bass line is instantly recognizable as the progeny of Bernard Edwards’s monster riff from Chic’s “Good Times,” a No. 1 hit in 1979, and Edwards’s partner in Chic, Nile Rodgers, gets credit for writing and playing guitars here. (See Justin Bieber’s 2015 smash “Where Are Ü Now,” which he made alongside Diplo.) “Energy” seems to operate on wires; it’s taut minimalism, with the supplest layering of sub-bass tones. The canonical example is Adonis’s “No Way Back,” from 1986, and the bass line of “Cozy” plays like an inversion of it.

Probably not, but tell that to the conspiracy theorists.

“The United States is definitely an empire and it’s definitely time,” she said. @ jvanmaraj2: “Beyoncé riding the four horses of the apocalypse, we are about to be slayed.” @ jestom: “love Beyoncé as horsewoman of the apocalypse. The cover of this month’s British Vogue is a striking shot of Beyoncé riding a red one. There has to be some kind of magic associated with it, or the Illuminati.’ But really, it’s because she works really hard, she’s really serious about her craft, she takes her time, and she surrounds herself with people that she trusts that are also very talented.” The cover of Renaissance is a striking shot of a mostly nude, be-heeled Beyoncé on top of a silver horse. This also feels like a dramatic spin on the old trope of asking your favorite celebrity to kill you.

On her new album Renaissance, Beyoncé samples Kelis' 2003 song 'Milkshake,' but Kelis has criticized the way the singer went about doing it.

The Renaissance credits listed on Beyoncé’s website state that “Energy” contains an interpolation of “Milkshake,” which was “written by Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo and performed by Kelis.” Beyoncé, however, has a history of dutifully crediting all of her many collaborators and contributors (even if those contributions are unwitting)—hence the lengthy “credits” section under each song on her website. In the last 15 or so seconds of the track, those “las” that Beyoncé softly sings are an apparent reference to the earworm pre-chorus from the Kelis track. “Nothing is ever as it seems, some of the people in this business have no soul or integrity and they have everyone fooled.” “Ah, la-la, ah, ah,” Beyoncé sings. “Ah, ah, ah, la-la-la-la-la-la,” Beyoncé responds.

Beyoncé's seventh studio album, Renaissance, is officially out in the world, and there is much to dissect. On the album, Beyoncé shares her views on ...

“When I worked 12 hours a day,” she wrote, Jonny “picked up my kids, made my household go smooth … cooked dinner and helped me to be free to build my business.” Based on what they’ve shared, he was Tina’s nephew who she grew up with and played a major role in raising Beyoncé and Solange. Jonny was gay and HIV positive. Beyoncé and her mother Tina Knowles have talked about Jonny a few times before.

Can Kelis sue the Neptunes, Pharrell and Chad Hugo, or Beyoncé for interpolating her 2003 song “Milkshake” in “Energy,” a new song on 'Renaissance'?

“My sense is that Beyoncé is a pretty sophisticated player and probably had her legal team make sure that whoever owned the rights to those things was giving her permission, because it’s definitely the case that if Beyoncé did it without permission from the copyright owners, that she could be sued even for a short” sample of interpolation, Nicolas explained. Kelis may also just be making a sort of separate moral-slash-ethical argument that Beyoncé should have given her the heads-up that she was going to be making use of this.” Kelis doesn’t seem to have any viable legal path for even getting songwriting credit for “Milkshake” by now or other songs she might feel cheated out of. Fishman voiced similar sentiments, stating, “Probably not, unless there’s a provision in a contract that would bind the sampling party.” Fishman pointed to several exceptions, but those involved situations where artists’ voices were used in marketing materials without their okay, which is a very different situation. One is to the underlying musical composition, the sort of notes on paper, if you will, that’s one copyright, and that’s typically owned by the songwriter — although they often assign those rights to a publisher,” Nicolas said. Beyoncé appeared to interpolate “Milkshake” — that is, use portions of the written music — but not outright sample it, as sampling entails using the actual recording. “Kelis seems to be making a claim, perhaps, that she has some role in the original musical composition, but at least on paper, it looks like if she ever had any rights. Beyoncé, it turned out, appears to have interpolated Kelis’s 2003 song “Milkshake” on her new track “Energy.” Responding to the fan page, Kelis claimed that Beyoncé did so without giving her a heads-up and slammed the Neptunes’ Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, with whom she worked on the single decades ago, for not originally giving her credit. The way Beyoncé apparently used “Milkshake” is also important here. “I also know the lies that were told. “I know what I own and what I don’t own,” Kelis said. On July 25, 2022, four days before Beyoncé was set to stop the world with her new album Renaissance, a Kelis fan page on Instagram claimed that a track would sample one of the hip-hop artist’s early 2000s hits.