Because Beyoncé felt that she needed a fresh approach to the album, she decided she didn’t want to record it in Houston. Therefore, she and Mathew agreed that she should set herself up in a Miami hotel. “I wanted to be around the ocean,” she told the Washington Post. “And I basically stayed at this hotel; downstairs was the studio, and that’s what I did. I went from upstairs to downstairs to around the corner to work out, back to the hotel. With this album, I wanted to grow artistically as an artist and as a writer. It really was experimental,” she said. “Everything I wanted to say, any chord I wanted to play or sing, I did . . . any weird, strange minor harmony . . . every weird lyric that didn’t make sense, I sang.”
When word got out that Beyoncé was making a solo album, demos of songs came flooding in for her consideration. By now, producers and beat makers the world over knew that getting a song on a Destiny’s Child album could make a new producer famous and rich, and an established one even richer; for them, the success of DC was at least an indicator as to what Beyoncé’s own album might do in the marketplace. For Beyoncé’s part, she wanted to create an album that reflected her growth and ambition as a singer, writer, and producer.
To find the best writers and producers to assist in her musical vision, Beyoncé spent two days personally interviewing potential collaborators from both coasts. She knew exactly what she wanted, too. After all, she practically grew up in the studio. Even before she knew the definition of a musical bridge or what an 808 was (the Roland TR-808, a popular programmable drum machine), she knew the function of both entities. Early on, she participated in the creation of her music and learned to deal with the egos of men who didn’t always want to hear a woman tell them, “Play that again,” “That hook doesn’t work for me,” or “We’ve tried it that way, now let’s try it my way.” She’d earned the respect of male collaborators for three reasons: First, she knew what she wanted; second, she wasn’t afraid to say so; and third, her ideas consistently translated into hits.
Beyoncé wanted as many influences on the album as possible, so she selected some well-known artists as collaborators, including reggae star Sean Paul, Luther Vandross, OutKast’s Big Boi, and Missy Elliott. A big influence, though, would be Jay Z, who would appear on two songs, “Crazy in Love” and “That’s How You Like It.” He would also cowrite two others.
“I worked with Jay Z on his album, so I asked him to do the same,” Beyoncé recalled. “We work really well together in the studio. Hip-hop and R&B is always a great collaboration. There’s a male point of view, and a female point of view. Men relate; women relate. He’s one of the best rappers, I think.” At this time, 2002, Beyoncé was adamant that she would not discuss her personal relationship with Jay, saying only, “We’re just cool. We’re just friends. We don’t really know each other like that.”
Jay may have been on her mind, but Lyndall Locke may have been too. He claimed she had written the title track of the album years earlier while with him. Lyndall recalls that Beyoncé wrote “Dangerously in Love” while the two of them were relaxing at her house in 1998. “She sang this song that she said was about us,” he recalled. “It was crazy good. I said, ‘You really gonna record that song and put it out into the world?’ And she said, ‘Yep, I sure am.’ When I hear it today, it really hits me hard.” (When the song was finally released, the public thought Beyoncé was referring to Jay with the lyric “I was in love with a Sagittarius / See the emotions he put me through,” since Jay is a Sagittarius, born on December 4. However, so is Lyndall, who was born under that same sign, on December 3.)
The first song Beyoncé recorded for her album at Miami’s South Beach Studios was “Naughty Girl,” a sensual groove employing Donna Summer’s 1975 hit “Love to Love You.” She cowrote and coproduced the track with Scott Storch, with whom she’d collaborate on two other album tracks, the exotic “Baby Boy,” featuring rapper Sean Paul, and “Me, Myself and I,” a solid midtempo neo-soul track that Beyoncé would describe as “the celebration of a breakup.”
Remarkably, when Beyoncé submitted the finished album, Dangerously in Love, to her record label, there was talk among the powers-that-be about not releasing it. In some respects, of course, this was a surprise, especially considering that the company had always suggested to Beyoncé that it supported her ambition to be a solo artist. However, with the stinging history of “Work It Out” still fresh on everyone’s minds, an abundance of caution was now being exercised when it came to Beyoncé’s music. Even the success of “’03 Bonnie & Clyde” wasn’t enough to get rid of the bad taste left in the mouths of many by “Work It Out.”
“They told me I didn’t have one hit on the album,” Beyoncé would later say. “I guess they were kinda right. I had five.” It was a joke in her act, but in truth Beyoncé would never forget Columbia/Sony’s initial doubts about her. As she moved forward with both Destiny’s Child and her solo projects, her subsequent actions—how she dealt with Columbia/Sony, her guarded faith in the label’s belief in her, and her quest for control over how she was marketed and promoted—would reflect the label’s original ambivalence about her debut album.
“Crazy in Love”
Beyoncé was several tracks deep into the production of her first album when she began collaborating with the producer who would change pretty much everything for her in terms of her pop music career. Rich Harrison had worked on Kelly Rowland’s successful 2002 solo album Simply Deep, contributing the track “Can’t Nobody.” He’d earlier cut his teeth with two Mary J. Blige projects. However, it was his writing and production of All I Have, the debut album of his protégée, singer Amerie, that really got Beyoncé’s attention.
Most every successful songwriter, no matter how much in demand, has a song or two he is holding back for just the right act. For Harrison, that song was an idea he envisioned building around a sample he treasured from “Are You My Woman (Tell Me So),” a 1970 song by 1970s R&B vocal group the Chi-Lites. Written by Eugene Record, the group’s lead singer and main songwriter, “Are You My Woman” wasn’t even one of the Chi-Lites’ most successful titles; the 1971 soul classics “Oh Girl” and “Have You Seen Her?” were the group’s breakout hits. However, Harrison was taken with “Are You My Womans’ ” sensational horn riff. It was followed by a dramatic instrumental breakdown featuring an exciting cymbal riding over spirited percussion. Adopting that bit of the song, that sample, as one of his secret weapons, Harrison tucked it away to be unleashed at just the right time. “I hadn’t really shopped it much,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t want to come out of the bag before it’s right. If people don’t really get it, you’ll leave them with a foul taste in their mouth.”
In December 2002, Harrison got the call to join the Beyoncé project, which Mathew had by then moved to Sony Music Studios in Manhattan. Elated, Harrison celebrated by going out on the town with friends. The next day, he arrived at the studio late and hungover. Overlooking his tardiness, Beyoncé asked him what music he had for her to hear. Harrison proudly played his prized horn sample, turning up the volume while standing back and waiting for the accolades. They weren’t forthcoming. In fact, Beyoncé wasn’t sure what to think; she was pretty sure she didn’t like it. “I knew I was going to have to sell it a little bit,” Harrison recalled, “because when [the song] comes on, it doesn’t sound like anything that was being done at the time.” Beyoncé actually thought the track sounded a little too old-school. “No one’s using horn sounds today,” she reasoned. Indeed, Beyoncé was reaching for what sounded current and hot in 2002, and in her opinion that didn’t include horns.
However, after a couple more listens to Harrison’s little sample, Beyoncé’s reticence began to ebb. An explosive stage performer by nature, maybe she was seduced by the sheer excitement of the music: It was big, exhilarating, and action-packed. It felt like . . . showtime. It was in Beyoncé’s expression of concentration that Harrison found the hope he so desperately sought. “From her face,” he said, “she was kinda like, ‘I don’t k
now, but I’mma ride with you anyway.’ ”
She may have been willing to “ride,” but Beyoncé insisted that Harrison do all of the driving: Leaving the studio for a couple of hours, she told him to write an actual song around the sample while she was gone. The very idea of having to write for such a high-profile artist in such a short amount of time was frightening. If he didn’t come up with something brilliant by the time Beyoncé returned, chances were good that she’d lose interest in the whole idea. However, Harrison definitely rose to the occasion; by Beyoncé’s return two hours later, he’d written all the song’s verses, leaving the lyrics on the bridge section for her to write herself. As the two discussed his work, Beyoncé happened to glance at herself in a mirror. Dressed casually with her hair not perfectly coiffed, she remarked out loud, to no one in particular, “Oh my God! I’m looking so crazy right now.”
“Hey! That’s the hook!” Harrison exclaimed.
Now Beyoncé was intrigued. After hearing the track repeatedly, she began singing the song’s sassy “Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, no, no, no” hook, and the whole song came together from there. Ecstatic about its development, Beyoncé called Jay, who came to the studio at about three in the morning. Loving what he heard, he walked into the sound booth, put on headphones, and recorded his largely improvised rap verse in a matter of just minutes.
And thus was born “Crazy in Love,” the song that blasted Beyoncé’s solo possibilities wide open. It’s the kind of hit every artist prays for, a smash that defines and/or redefines a whole career while catapulting it to the next level. Beyoncé confidently rides the driving rhythm as she sings with steely, soulful resolve of the delirious, delicious psychosis of love. For all his skills, Jay Z’s rap interlude doesn’t alter the fact that this song is really all about Beyoncé and her sexy association with its dynamic groove.
“Crazy in Love” was released on May 18, 2003. By the time Dangerously in Love was issued a month later—selling almost four hundred thousand copies in its first week—both the album and single were number one on Billboard’s respective charts. “Crazy in Love” would spend eight consecutive weeks at number one.
“Baby Boy,” the next single from the album, did even better, reaching number one and staying there a week longer than its predecessor. “Me, Myself and I” and “Naughty Girl” were both Top Five singles.
Come awards season, Dangerously in Love pulled in trophies around the world, among them the 2004 Grammy for Best Contemporary R&B Album. Meanwhile, “Crazy in Love” also won Grammys for Best R&B Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (with Jay Z), while the single “Dangerously in Love 2” won for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
Ultimately, Dangerously in Love would clock worldwide sales of more than twelve million copies and downloads. With this album, Beyoncé’s career truly began to soar . . . and there was no turning back.
The Birth of Sasha Fierce
If the ability to be an icon is contingent on creating iconography, it involves the creation of a character that can be digestible to the world. That character is a version of the person who created it, but certainly not the true self. Most celebrities put forth an image that isn’t really who they are in their private lives. Sometimes the image doesn’t get in the way of the person’s true identity because the two are so closely aligned. Madonna comes to mind. Her brazen stage persona is very closely connected to who she actually is in the real world. The same holds true for Cher, for instance. Sometimes, though, the iconography is in such opposition to the authentic nature of the celebrity that it causes genuine conflict. Michael Jackson, for example, created a tabloid image for himself in the 1980s with PR gimmicks that eventually backfired and then did serious damage to his reputation. Indeed, putting forth a false image for public consumption can be a dicey proposition, and it usually ends with the celebrity lamenting that the public doesn’t really know or understand the true person behind the mask. In Beyoncé’s life, “Sasha Fierce,” whom she always described as her “alter ego,” is the character she purposely created—an identity very much not in line with who she actually was as a person.
It could be said that with the creation of Sasha Fierce, Beyoncé was playing with fire and didn’t even know it. She was too young and inexperienced to understand the potential consequence of creating a false sense of herself for the world. All she thought she was doing at the time was making a distinction between her more shy offstage personality and the self-possessed, sexy diva she became once she hit the stage.
How Sasha Fierce first manifested, she has said, was that one evening onstage, Beyoncé snatched off the expensive Lorraine Schwartz diamond earrings she was wearing on loan and, in a fit of showmanship, hurled them out into the audience. That’s when her cousin Angie dubbed her “Sasha Fierce,” suggesting a marked difference between the real Beyoncé and the one who would do such a thing. When the show was over and she’d gotten ahold of herself, Beyoncé told Angie, “Girl, you need to get out there and get me my earrings back, because I’m not payin’ for them! They cost $250,000!” Angie actually found the person who’d caught the earrings, telling her, “Those are my cousin’s!” and demanding their return.
The Sasha Fierce character was on full display in the “Crazy in Love” video that was shot in the late winter of 2003. Beyoncé conveys her sexuality through a series of intricate dance numbers and fashions mixing couture and street chic. One might speculate, at least based on this production, that the budding relationship with Jay had somehow freed her to explore her sensuous side.
In the video, we first encounter Beyoncé as she sashays down the middle of Mission Road in downtown Los Angeles with Jay racing in a car toward her. Her look is decidedly earthy: a plain white tank top, denim short shorts, and red pumps; her hair long, straight, and highlighted; her makeup minimal. After Jay declares “history in the making,” Beyoncé drops to the sidewalk on all fours and starts singing: “I look and stare so deep in your eyes.” A generation earlier, in 1984 at the MTV Music Awards, Madonna shocked and excited audiences by getting down on her hands and knees onstage and sensuously rolling around on the floor while singing “Like a Virgin.” Beyoncé ups the ante by squatting to the ground and, in a series of fast cuts, manipulating her agile body into a series of erotically charged poses, her long legs working her red heels. During the routine she twists, gyrates, twerks, and lays her body flat out on the concrete.
Making the imagery even more impactful is that Beyoncé seems to have had breast augmentation surgery by this time; or in any event, she’s much more voluptuous.
One aspect of the Sasha Fierce character is best described by Beyoncé’s longtime makeup artist, Billy B. “From the time she was a child, Beyoncé could be intensely self-critical in an effort to make sure everything is just right onstage,” he said. “By creating the Sasha Fierce character, she created an entity that could take the blame if something went wrong. After all, it wasn’t her up there onstage, it was Sasha Fierce. Sasha Fierce was the brand, not Beyoncé. So, from my talking to her about it over the years, I think it was more than just ‘Sasha is sexy and I’m not.’ It was also a protective mechanism. The alter ego, Sasha Fierce, could make a mistake for which she, the real Beyoncé, didn’t then have to suffer for. It was her way of separating the brand from the person. That’s how I saw it, anyway.”
Billy B. has a good point. Certainly, from the time she was a child, when most kids her age were building treehouses, Beyoncé was building an image, even if she didn’t consciously know it—and the Sasha Fierce characterization was an early manifestation of it.
The problem with Sasha Fierce, which would become more evident with the passing of time, was that she became a psychological crutch for Beyoncé. She was one half of a split identity put forth by a young lady who might have been better served trying to merge all of the facets of who she was into one private personality. In the end, it wasn’t just her sexy side that Beyoncé was trafficking with Sasha Fierce. It was her anger, and anyone could see as much by
watching her performances. It was as if Sasha Fierce was a doppelgänger Beyoncé created to whom she attempted to transfer all of the protest she was feeling in her private life: about missing out on her childhood; about the way her father treated her mother; about the way she felt she’d been treated by Lyndall Locke; about the disloyalty of former singing partners; and maybe even about giving up her entire life for show business.
In a family that usually seemed out of touch with their emotions—or at the very least had gotten used to suppressing them—Sasha Fierce was an easy way out for Beyoncé Knowles, and one she was able to take with the approval of what probably felt to her like the entire world. It would be a few years before she would begin to understand the identity crisis—or maybe it’s better viewed as an existential crisis, represented in her life by this untamed character.
Father Issues
After the success of “’03 Bonnie & Clyde,” some music critics thought that Jay Z had introduced Beyoncé to a brand-new urban demographic. However, once “Crazy in Love” became a big hit, others began to feel that she was the one expanding his fan base. Later, she would record a song with Jay called “Upgrade You,” in which she would expound on this popular notion, though mostly in terms of the two exposing one another to the better (read: materialistic) things in life: “How you gonna upgrade me?” Jay asks her in the song, “What’s higher than number one?” In broader terms, though, speaking of his own core audience, there’s little doubt that Beyoncé had a huge impact on it.
Becoming Beyoncé Page 39
