Beyonce - 4

(ftr I don't think this is a "riddim" either, but that is mostly because there is zero connection between Beyonce and dancehall; it seems a lot easier to make that argument that it does to make easily-disprovable-via-legit-riddim-examples arguments)

yeah - is there a term for rappers rapping over existing beats on mixtapes?

beat-jacking, r|t|c already alluded to it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vsLcNJdF9k

can we not all save ourselves the bother and just agree that there are many shades of grey to the matter, too many to enumerate, and that i am probably right

lol dude I think were already at that point

at least, I was

am with brainwasher so far on this tune anyway

coincidentally enough wrt to this beat, my steady u__u in the face of much energy expended is reminding me of listening to 'lose my breath' for the first time

yeah that's a very good comparison point, i had a deja vu of Beyonce trying way too hard feeling listening to this that probably came from that (and not "Deja Vu," which was not trying enough)

this song is kinda nutty :)

saying that, i think if i were an exec i would have released this first too - if the video proves suitably spectacular then a refamiliarising bey waterboarding is all the people want for starters anyway, and this is that

it's nice that she went with a song title that'll easily feed into the "omg b hates rihanna" blog narrative too

"lose my breath" is still amazing

hopefully the video from this stays far the fuck away from m.i.a./"rude boy" territory

"lose my breath" is still amazing

― lex pretend, Tuesday, April 19, 2011 1:45 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

rly tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTlWtG8qXvo&feature=player_embedded#at=20

^^^Lol. Maybe I'm getting a little older, but really is the song that bad??? Also, this is like her 4th solo album, and her 8th or 9th overall. The woman can only make so many "classics"/"bangers" consecutively. I think she can afford to experiment or stumble at this moment of her career.

This also reminds me of how her rabid fans hated "Deja Vu" and tried to create a petition for it and the video to be removed. In addition, I would like to know how more women/girls thinks of the song. We already have Maura who is the most balanced critique so far. The others have been gay men, and well we already noted how drag queen parody can go into full effect.

To clarify, I'm not saying that gay men don't have the right or the perspective to analyze/review pop music by female artists. If anything, gay men's critiques are highly valuable. But with forums like popjustice and the likes they can be quite shrill and remind me that despite the social connotations of being gay, we are still men at the end of the day.

I'm just saying I would like to see more women's/girl's reaction to the song, and yes even straight men too.

I don't think this song is all that but lsb otm

I don't necessarily mind Beyoncé's brand of feminism so much - it's an essential part of who she is as an artist and probably as a person - but I do feel as though it's steadily regressed over the years, from being pretty sophisticated and smart back at the beginning of Destiny's Child ("Hey Ladies", "Bug A Boo" & others) to now just being peurile hollering like "Single Ladies" and this, which seems to be her most basic female empowerment anthem to date.

Though when she says "Who runs the world? Girls!", I think the "girls" bit is just being used to cover up what she's really thinking: "I run this motha!". Letoya, LaTavia and Michelle for starters know Beyoncé doesn't care an ounce for empowering womankind in general.

And that's what I love about her.

Yeah, the "Girls!" makes the whole song sound kind of silly for a grown-ass woman to be singing.

Poor LaTavia...

i get the impression from her songs that beyoncé is a really private person who is determined not to let anyone see the "real her", and who's got the chutzpah to get away with that. and that she really, really loves money. not (just) in the flashy bling way that's pop's common currency, i mean really loves money like a hedge fund owner loves money. actually beyoncé is pretty much the hedge fund of the pop industry.

This is pretty OTM.

Also: Celine Dion doesn't "do" camp intentionally. Dion doesn't know what camp is -- she married an septuagenarian with the foulest mullet ever created.

and that is the most camp thing of all!

which is how camp should work!

SO basically this is Beyonce's "Hollaback Girl," then?

Poor LaTavia...

I don't know if this is snarky or not, but she actually did go through a hard time after the Destiny's Child break-up.

No snark in the least. Of all the ex-members, I have the most sympathy for her after her appearance on Real Housewives of Atlanta. Matthew Knowles really did a number on those girls and Beyoncé and Kelly aren't exactly innocent in the purging of the "bad seeds" as Beyoncé so aptly put it. As some of you mentioned upthread, she really does have a love affair with money and comes from a hardcore capitalist family. Something about her has always rubbed me the wrong way, but I don't question her abilities as a performer. The "Single Ladies" clip is still as impressive as the first time I viewed it.

Beyonce recently fired her father as her manager after all these years. Also, Latoya stated that she is on civil terms with Kelly and Beyonce. I'm not saying Beyonce is trying to reform, but for someone who is known to have a hard, capitalist shell there has to be some chinks in her armor.

Either that or she is a very calculating businesswoman. Then again, did any of us cared when a male artists like Jay-Z dismantled Roc-a-Fella?

I know I didn't. A matter of fact, I felt like Jay-Z (like Beyonce) know when to jump ship at the right time.

whole lot of people ARE butthurt about how Jay did the Roc or disappointed in how he handled it though

Oh I know the hip hop world hates it. I was talking about "us" specifically on ILM.

wow.

did any of us cared when a male artists like Jay-Z dismantled Roc-a-Fella?

I did!

What a surprise Switch did something similar for Christina Aguilera for Bionic. The instrumentals are essentially the same:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ2niKaeW74

Dion doesn't know what camp is -- she married an septuagenarian with the foulest mullet ever created.

and let's not forget her anne geddes calendar

That X-tina cover reminds me of this one Mega Man game where after you defeat a boss Mega Man is standing there and half of him is see-through robot circuitry.

Also, yay Beyonce! I've had a thing for her since the first time I heard Destiny's Child, and it's definitely not going away w this song.

This is a straight up banger but I hope the final version cuts the bit where Beyonce appears to wander off in a different direction before remembering where she is and what she's supposed to be doing.

this is brilliant

and by afaict equating just the snare drum pattern with the entire "beat" (i.e. all of the instrumentation) you're either willfully bending the truth or demonstrating an inability to tell the difference

"All of the instrumentation" isn't actually the beat though, the beat IS the snare drum pattern and the other percussive noises around it, and it's there in its entirety.

I was using "the beat" in a modern hip hop parlance where it means "the instrumental track" and not "the percussion."

In which case telling someone they're "either willfully bending the truth or demonstrating an inability to tell the difference" is kind of a dick move when what they were saying was technically correct.

(Fwiw I don't really care about the concept of "riddimification" and don't think it's really applicable here)

I am perplexed by this tune. If tune it be called. Beyonce went to more effort on her "In The Club" "riddim" cut and didn't even release that.

it still hasn't quite settled for me, i must admit - i'm feeling the energy and the yelling, i don't remotely mind the lack of tune, but it does make me want to listen to princess nyah instead

I think the decision to get rid of Afrojack's "uh uh uh uhhhhh" hook but not replace it with much maybe was flawed, but then the first few listens I thought "Never Leave You" was too sparse too.

Beyonce already has proven she can do yelling in fine form time and time again, at this stage I'm not certain I can see what the yelling amounts to here.

Surely this isn't particularly surprising to anyone that's heard Ring The Alarm or Single Ladies? It's a superior call-to-arms ladies banger than Single Ladies certainly.

Also this is still the demo we're listening to, right?

okay I am in love with "Bobblehead", how did I miss this

oh right, most of the singles from that album were terrible and I never listened to it

It's a superior call-to-arms ladies banger than Single Ladies certainly.

On what criterion? I dunno, whether you like it or not Single Ladies is basically the "call-to-arms ladies banger" of the past 5 years.

well, it certainly raises the "call to arms" stakes by using what sounds like a marching band drum cadence as a foundational beat