Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z's "Crazy In Love"

♪ Crazy baby, come and look at some crazy right now ♪ ♪ If the love's coming look at some crazy right now ♪ ♪ You're crazy baby, come and look at some crazy right now ♪ Oh, that's no, that's the no. ♪ Crazy baby, come and look at some crazy right now ♪ That's no note that where I pointed to you. That's my favorite note in the whole song. Luxury Today, we're talking about the song that marked a turning point for one of the most influential artists of all time. The moment she stepped into solo superstar. That's right, Diallo. This song was everywhere when it came out. It topped the charts for eight straight weeks, it took them not one, but two Grammys. And just as importantly, remains a cultural touchstone, arguably laying the foundation for everything that followed in her career. - I can't see a lot of other people's careers too. - I'm so excited because we have the demo. That's right, we have the demo for this breakout song. We're talking one song and that song is "Crazy in Love" by Beyoncé, featuring Jay-Z. ♪ Come and hope for your days, right now ♪ ♪ It's come and hope for your days, right now ♪ ♪ You're so crazy in love ♪ ♪ It's come and hope for your days, right now ♪ (upbeat music) - If you're a fan of one song, you already know you're into the deeper story, the culture and circumstances behind unforgettable music moments, especially when the history gets complicated. - That's exactly what the new season of La Brega explores. Season three of the critically acclaimed bilingual podcast dives into cultural battlegrounds, from courtrooms to boxing rings to the global stage. This is story of Puerto Rican champions and what they can teach us about identity. Listen to La Brega wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, one song listeners, if you love our show, you should check out "Trap it all." The podcast where technology meets culture. - Each episode, "Trap it all" hosts and founder Dan Runsey. Dicks into the strategy behind the media and technology that drives our attention. You'll hear "Trap it all" explore topics like YouTube's growing influence in music and entertainment. They're never ending saga about TikTok's future and how AI is shaping the future. - Media is one of the first industries to get disrupted by the tech. It's Travels job to keep you ahead of the latest trends. You can listen to "Trap it all" wherever you get your podcasts. That's "Trap it all," T-R-A-P-I-T-A-L. I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ, "The All A Riddle." - And I'm a lover, not a fighter, but I'm also producer, DJ, songwriter, and musicologist, luxury, aka the guy who whispers. - Interpolation. - And this is one song. - The show where we break down the stems and stories behind iconic songs across genres and tell you why they deserve one more listen. - You will hear these songs like you've never heard them before and you can watch one song on YouTube while you're there. Please like and subscribe. - So today we're talking about my fellow Virgo, Queen Bee, Beyonce. I'm, she's just like me in so many ways. - I think that every time I look at your face. I'm like, wow, that's Beyonce. - There's just some artists in the world that you feel a connection to and you can't put your finger on why and Beyonce. - I understand her, like really deeply. - What is the connection? - I mean, we're literally does Virgo's in common. But also her. - What does that mean to the young in it? - To me, the meticulous detail and the perfectionism and the vision boards and world domination plans, like you see that in her every like utterance. And I don't have the world domination maybe to that degree, but like I recognize. - So you have a vision board stand. - I recognize a version of her if it was me like times 1000 or times 10 million. - It's like those YouTube videos like a thousand luxuries, it gets one Beyonce. - I might have a fighting chance maybe. - I think you might, I think you might. - So Diola, when was the first time you heard crazy in love? - I don't know exactly the first time I heard it, but I do know that this song marked a major shift in my DJing. Because before this song, I will say, I was strictly, and like probably an underground DJ, like if it was a Carl Craig remix, if it was the extra P remix of a hip-hop song, then like nobody outside the hip-hop culture was into, that was my lane. But I remember I was doing this party and the people who hired me, they really wanted to hear this song. So I was like, all right, they're paying me, I'll give them what they wanted. And I'll never forget, not only when I put this song on, did the dance floor go bananas? It's like when crazy. - It was the first note probably, right? - From the first note, but like that, the way that this song is mixed, the way that those, the bass pumps out at the very beginning of the song, I just remember like seeing the speaker kind of rattle and shake like that, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Like it just, it moved, it all moved. And I was just like, oh, this is why people play popular songs. - And I remember thinking, this is gonna change what I, what I spent, and I remember looking at my DJ friend who was there, he just shook his head like, oh, he's sold out, Riddle. Your DJ sets were pure till now. - Quick question. So you'd probably heard the song before, but the context of doing it in a dance context, DJ context with big speakers, people responding to the music, that gave you a different impression of the same song that had made as much of an impression on yourself. - Absolutely, there are a couple of songs, I think that when you hear them play loud, they take on a totally different personality. - Yes. - You know, I'm thinking about Mr. Oizzo's flat beat. - Yeah. (upbeat music) - I heard, I saw that ad on a commercial. I was like, that's pretty cool. But then when I heard it come out of actual club speakers, all of a sudden that woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, like I was like, oh, this is strange and perfect. - Oh, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. - Yeah. She's so good. And it was kind of the same way with Crazy in Love. When I heard it loud in a club, not playing out of a distant car, or even through some headphones, it just took on a different personality. - Maybe we're laying the groundwork for a theory about why the song is so big and iconic. - It's infectious. - It's right out of the gate, because it is a great radio song, and it's a great dance floor song. - Yes. - And it was an immediate like wedding favorite and bar mitzvah favorite. It's that kind of song that gets people to the dance floor. - Absolutely. - Within three milliseconds of hearing the first horn staff. - It comes in, it takes you by the throat and it's yours for the next three and a half minutes. - What about you, man? What was the first time you heard this song, or it affected you? - I remember seeing a copy of, or buying a copy of this British magazine called The Face, which I would buy regularly. It was like in 2003 before. Before there were blogs and kind of other touchstones and ways to get your like taste making cultural curation done, you know, beyond the radio and the obvious things, magazines. Like I was a big magazine dude, especially British import magazines. And The Face was just one of my favorite. They had great interviews, and just really deeply tasteful. Like they found the cool kind of deeper stuff beyond the, you know, the top layer of culture. But also this cover had Beyonce on the cover. Something about it was like, this is, I was in an Indie Rock moment where I was starting my band. I was deeply enmeshed in Indie Rock and like getting my stuff together for my own San Francisco scene, you know, putting posters at the whole nine. We're rehearsing. I was deep in that space. So I wasn't really listening to the radio or paying attention to pop culture. But this The Face magazine cover with Beyonce on it for this song was like, I wanna find out what this is. I'm curious. Wonderfully in this moment, there was lime wire, right? There were these early kind of file sharing methods pre-spotted by a pre-YouTube. There's no YouTube yet. So this might have been one of my first like lime wire downloads just to kind of like. - The Statue of Libertation is on your side. I'm sure that Beyonce's not gonna come and be like, "Give me a minute." - I'm not going to R.I. double A jail for this one. But I. - I love that you brought up lime wire. I have not thought about lime wire. And so love. - It's so important. - Dude, it was so important. Especially as a DJ, I was a vinyl guy. But this is around this period, 2002, 2003. I think I was just starting to always keep like a little case logic of CDs by my side. Just in case like, you know, if a record skipped or something like that, like you could just pop in a CD, keep the dance floor going while you figured out what was wrong with your needles or something like that. But yes, I was a lime wire. Lime wire allowed you to go down the rabbit hole. - Right. - In a time before MP3s were just getting easily downloaded. - You had one forgets that there was a moment when you could just reach in your pocket and listen to every song ever made. - Ever made. - Yes. - Yes. - Way before streaming. Way before MP3 downloading, though, you know, like in the sense of like going to somebody's blog and like downloading it, there was a sort of a blog moment. - No, like we were coming out of Napster. - Yeah. - And Napster had gotten famously shut down by, you know, the numbers of Metallica and others. - Yeah. - But then lime wire sort of slid in the back door. Can I tell you my origin? - What is your first lime wire down there? - My first lime. So I was really into this electronic artist. I think he's Scottish named Milo. - Yes. - And he had a song called "A My Arms" and it's possible to understand an interview who's got it. Level Scottish, yes. - I really liked the song in my arms and I knew that it had a sample. I looked it up and the internet was able to tell me the song but I could not find this. I couldn't find it in the meep of records. I couldn't find it anywhere. He had sampled a song called "Waiting for a Star To Fall" by Boy Meets Girl. Let's play a second of that. (upbeat music) ♪ Waiting for a star to fall ♪ ♪ Maybe I'll fall into my arms ♪ ♪ That's where you belong with my arms ♪ - I think one of the things that I love about music is sometimes you could take something completely cheesy and turn it into something very, very cool. So this is the song "The Sample" that this is "A My Arms" by Milo. (upbeat music) - I love how he took those cheesy lyrics, put it on top of a bed of Kim Karnes, Betty Davis' eyes and then suddenly made a song that was like powering all our fun sort of like electronic pool parties, that song. - Oh, it's great. And that was one of Milo's geniuses. That was kind of his mission statement. It's something that is just not cool. Or just something from that "Forgotten 80s" moment. - "Forgotten 80s." - Yeah. - We should do another episode. - Bring it back. - Totally about "Forgotten 80s." Maybe it'll come our freestyle episode but like there's like a sound from like post. But Donna Prince, Michael Jackson, but pre like Nirvana that I feel like doesn't get discussed a whole lot. We'll do that on a future episode to lead up to Crazy in Love. Beyonce had already had a massive career with Destiny's Child. They're one of the biggest girl groups going into the 2000s. And she even co-wrote some of their biggest hits. We've got Survivor. Independent women for one. Jumping, jumping. And booty, Licious. What's cool is that Stevie Nicks actually shows up in the video. So on top of that iconic opening with like the sort of like push in zooms and each person getting their moment of shine, you've got Stevie Nicks in the video. And Stevie Nicks went out of a way to show her support of this burgeoning young star, Beyonce. It wasn't just collecting a check because she would have been like 19, right? Beyonce was like 19. It was very young in this year. Yeah, 19 or 20. Yeah. So after their album Survivor, Destiny's Child announced that they were going on heinous for a little bit to focus on their solo projects. In 2002, Beyonce released their very first solo single. And no, it was not Crazy in Love. This blew my mind. Okay. The first solo single by Beyonce is in fact the song "Work It Out" from the Austin Powers movie gold member. She of course played Foxy Cleopatra in this movie. The track, hold on. This is what the track was produced by the Neptune's. They had Sheila E on drums and guys. This song did not even crack the Billboard Hot 100. I cannot believe you. I cannot say Neptune's shocking every movie, even a movie to boost and a movie to boot. Let's play "Work It Out." I've never heard this sign in my life. You haven't? I'm not a fan of that at all. Oh, I like this song a lot of children's toys getting stepped on. Oh, man, I like this song a lot. And let me just say this. I think the reason this did not chart is because they were clearly going for a song in a period piece movie. And I don't think Black Radio, much less pop radio. Beyonce wasn't at that point yet where she can come out with a song that is in terms of genre, this much of a throwback. I mean, it's like a 70s. - Yes, like the PlayStation, kind of vibe is what they were going for or something. - I'm sure that Clear Channel and some of the other big conglomerates had already started purchasing radio at that time. - Yeah. - So the big, you know, R&B and rap stations in all your major cities, they had a very, like, they had a much more limited range of what they were playing. So you got to imagine this 2002, like, I mean, like what's being played right now? Like, it's some Neptune songs, but there wasn't like a whole lot of place on the radio for a song this far out of left field. You know what I mean? So I think it makes actually sense if you think about where radio was and radio was the primary way that most people are still getting their music in 2002, that this song was just too strange. - Yeah, too out there. - It was too much of a throwback. And I said on this show before, most of the time in, there have been exceptions, but most of the time in Black culture and Black Radio, we don't do retro the same way. So this song felt very retro. It felt very, it almost reminds me of that Nika Kasa song, like a feather, which was Mark Ronson's, I believe, first, you know, major production. - Can I ask you about that when you say not the same way? Are you saying it's, it was too retro without an addition of something modern to kind of mixes up. - Yeah, well, if it happens, like, sampling with the drum machine, et cetera, et cetera. That kind of thing. - Yes. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying that like, if you think about some of the songs on Voodoo, like, yeah, interlo and Questlove are going after a sound that is not a radio sound. - Yeah. - You know, so when you listen to Black Radio at that time, like, they're still very exciting stuff happening right on the edge of both street culture and, like, brand new music. Like, so Missy was really big. When I think about the fact that this day, if you go to your city's blues venue, it ain't filled with like a whole bunch of Black people. Like, it's usually like a bunch of like older white guys playing their favorite Robert Johnson or something like that. But I feel like for most of my lifetime, Black music has ferociously charged forward in some direction. You can like it or dislike it. But it's not concerned with like the blues of the 1950s. It's not really over the concern these days with James Brown. And you know, there's like a little bit of love for Stevie Wonder because he can just blow his heart out. You know, he can sing. Like, yeah, just Black culture doesn't do that the same way. It's just different. And I would argue that one of the reasons, one of the things that kept this song back is the fact that it is so decidedly retro. So even though it's got this great A pedigree of 2002, it's not going to get played on '97. This doesn't sound like it sounds like it's going to get played on. It doesn't sound modern enough. Yeah. I think you nailed it. I think it's just not modern enough. Yeah. Despite having, you know, this pedigree of artists isn't seen. So around this time, early 2000s, Beyonce and J.C. become something of an item. Now, obviously, they're years away from getting married. There was also talk about, like, maybe she likes Sean Palm, maybe she likes this guy. There was a lot of speculation. Yeah. I think it's very unbranded for the couple that they became that instead of addressing these rumors head on, they actually released a song together. And that song, their first collaboration was '03 Bonnie and Clyde. It's off of J.C.'s album, Blueprint 2. I think it's here a little bit of this song. And that, of course, a clear interpolation of this two-pots song. I'm sorry. Jesus Christ, man. Do I got to do everything around you? I'm sorry. I said the quiet part loud. Here's what they were. Turbo Laney. It's two-pots me and my girlfriend off of his Maccabelli album. Now, if you really want to go down the rabbit hole, I just think there was, like, this very distinct trend, maybe in the 10-year period between '93 and 2003 when Bonnie and Clyde comes out, where people were coming out with songs which were ostensibly about a relationship. But the girl in the song was always something else. I wouldn't say that it starts with Common and I used to love her. That's why her is h.e.r. He's really talking about, it's not a girl, it's talking about hip-hop, but then Nas did a song where the girl is his gun. He talks about how the gun gets manufactured and it gets shipped to the States and it gets passed off to this kid on the street. That was a song called "I gave you power" from '96. And then in '97, two-pots, you know, posthumously, came out with a song called "Me and my Girlfriend" where he, too, talks about his girlfriend, but his girlfriend is his gun. And then Jay-Z and Beyonce came out with Bonnie and Clyde where, just from the very first note, the look for me, like Jay-Z says, that's directly tied to the two-pots. That's how two-pots starts his song. And the chorus is a direct interpretation of the two-pots song. But this is the first time, ironically, that the girlfriend in the song is actually a woman. It's actually Beyonce. So it has all these layers of meaning- It kind of came full circle. Which are there if you know about them or look for them, but you can also just enjoy the song on its own. That's in the hip-hop community. We were talking about these things, you know what I mean? And like, so it was just like, oh snap. So now Jay-Z is keeping it, you know, he's got another song sort of in that vein. But now this time, the girl is a woman. And that to those layers of meaning, the fact that Bonnie and Clyde is a song is already the series, Gownsburg, Brigitte Bardot, version. So of course, it's based on the like real-life story, maybe the movie. So there's many, many- Yeah. The one baby movie with the- By the way, can I just say- I would love to do a surge episode. He was one of my favorite artists of all time at one point in my life, you know, Histoire de Melle de Nielsen is one of my favorite albums of all time. Maybe we can squeeze that in at some point. So dangerously in love, the record, this would have been Beyonce's debut, was going to come out in 2002, but then Kelly comes out with Dilemma. Oh yes, the song with the song with Nelly, absolutely, an absolute hip record. And once this song blew up, then Mr. Noll's Matthew, Beyonce's father, decided to push the release of her debut a little further in the future to give a little space from the huge hit that was Dilemma. And during these delays, Beyonce continues working on her album. And this time, she meets an up-and-coming producer from Washington DC named Rich Harrison, who I think is one of our unsung hero. I agree. He is officially now the unsung hero of this episode. Listen, it's not that he's not famous, but like, you know, the 2000s gave us, you know, the Neptune's and Kanye West and all these names, but I feel like Rich Harrison absolutely needs to be- His name is in that conversation. In the conversation. Because- So many good songs from Mary J. Blige, Kelly Rowland, and I feel like he is the reason why we know Amory because he has produced so many of my favorite songs by here. Here's one of my all-time favorites for the entire decade of music that was in 2000. This is why do we fall in love by Amory? (upbeat music) - Whoo, that song goes so hard, I love that song. Have you heard that song before? - I didn't know that one. - That one was a smooth, great, great song. - It's smooth, but it actually hits, it hits hard. Like I love how it hits the drums. - Yeah, we're gonna talk more about Rich Harrison's sparkling production in the second half of the show. We're gonna take a quick break. But when we come back, we're not only gonna hear Beyonce Knowles' isolated vocals. We're going to hear the demo. Yes, the demo for Crazy in Love. It's not on YouTube. It's not out there until we are putting it out there. I'm not exactly on YouTube. When we get back, when we get back. (dramatic music) Welcome back to One Song. Now we're about to dive into the stems of Crazy in Love. Co-written and co-produced by Rich Harrison. From what I understand, Rich already had the beat and was just waiting for the right artist to use it. Luxury, help us break down this beat and what makes it so iconic. - All right, let's do it. So we're gonna start with the iconic sample, the source of the sample. There are two samples, but they're both from the same song. - Okay. - So let's listen to both of them. The source is the song by the chylites called, "Are You My Woman" parentheses. Tell me so from 1970, "Bruns with Records." And the record labels relevant. We'll get to that in a little bit. First of all, here's the song. I'll play it from the beginning and you'll hear both of the samples. Here comes loop one. These two bars right here. (upbeat music) And that's loop two right here, those two bars. And that's the song. - That is so cool. I love this. This is a part of sampling that I love. Hey, don't tell me it's not an art. That song has been around for decades before Rich comes across it and loops it. It enters into one of the biggest singles of all time. But also, I love all the live instrumentation, all the drums, all the happening musically there. - So I'm gonna quote unquote recreate the sample. But I'll basically show you how Rich Harrison flipped it. So he started with that first loop, those first two bars I pointed out. The original song is at 113 BPM and it's in C major, but he pitches it down a whole step, two half steps. And he drops down the tempo about 14 BPM. Let's see how that happened. So here's that first loop. (upbeat music) So he took that pitch down to, so that now sounds like this. (upbeat music) And I can be guilty of like, okay, all pitches are even, like all the keys are a little bit, but they're not, and like deep musicians will even go to the mat for like, you know, well, spinal tap, D minor is the saddest key. There's something to that, 'cause there's a difference in how those songs sound. - I really agree with this idea. - Just at different key and different keys. - You know, and I'm not a person, as listeners of the show know, who can talk in terms of like G, you know, in A major, and all like, I can't, look, it's a sore, I'm sad about it. I'm D minor about where I am with these keys. But what I will say is, - I think you're sharp. - Thank you, sir. I think that like whenever I do go look and see like, a bunch of songs that I like, - Yeah. - Certain keys pop up way more than others. - There's a lot. - And I'm not even talking about like songs that make me happy. I'm talking about songs I think sound good. - It's not just the tonality, although that is a part of it. Now let's shift the tempo in addition to the pitch. We're gonna go from 113 BPM to roughly 99 BPM. (upbeat music) - I really want to emphasize, I only did two things, but the transformation was stromatic. - Yes. - Here's the original again. (upbeat music) - The energy is, it's so much more vibrant. - Yeah, it's a parade. - And there's a little bit of, it's a little darker, slowed down and pitched down. And it hits harder. And I haven't even added what Rich added. We'll do that in just a minute. - Yeah, I just went way in real quick and say like, as a DJ, when this song came out, one of the things that made it stand out is you know, we were still pretty close to the 90s. Most of your favorite hip-hop songs from the 90s range from anywhere as absolutely slow as like 82, 84. And then the fastest songs, I'd say were usually like 94, 95. The fact that this song came in at 99, it was actually faster. - It's pretty fast. - It actually started to break a certain barrier, a BPM barrier, if you will, in hip-hop that said, oh, you can still come in at 99. Jay-Z, who was actually known for a faster style of rapping at the very beginning of his career. It's rapping faster here than he is on something like, let's say dead presidents or something like that. Like it's kind of breaking some barriers, just in a pure technical, what's acceptable in hip-hop songs. - So it's important to like point out a couple things about what we just heard. So the Shylights are a four piece vocal group out of Chicago. - With hits. - I mean, like Shylights have hits. - Let's play probably their biggest hit is from 1972, this is O-Girl. ♪ O-Girl ♪ ♪ I'd be in trouble if you left it now ♪ ♪ 'Cause I don't know where ♪ - I love the Shylights. I did not realize this. They were essentially the singers of the group. And we know very little about the musicians who actually play on this track, right? - That's important. We're gonna go back to, we have many episodes where we talk about how what you're hearing in the song is often disconnected to who's in the credits, who's credited, and frankly, who gets paid. So that's why it's relevant. To bring back our old friends of the show, Sample Phantom and Credit Ghosts, two expressions that I have coined to label this phenomenon and will be in my fourth coming book on Oxford University Press, being released this summer, how to steal music. - Reorder your copy, not yet. The question of who performed the music we just heard is one of my biggest failings on this show. And I'm gonna ask the One Song Nation for help on this. I'm gonna tell you what I found. We're gonna talk about it. And if you know anything more about the horn players you just heard, the bass player you just heard, and the drummer you heard, we'd love to hear about it. - It's almost like the record label has suppressed this information. I mean, like we should say, runs would cast sort of a shady pass. Like they got wrapped up in like the Peola case in 1975. - Let's talk about that. So Brunswick Records is sort of a pre-Motown Motown in that they had sessions around in the 1920s. - They've been around forever. - Forever, right. They have a long story in history. Go check out their website for their own accounting of the label's history, includes this. - But not their accounting, they don't publish that. - That's also there with their own website says quote, "Working at Brunswick's New York office in the '70s was surreal. For motion meetings we'll talk about determining how much cash TVs and stereos were needed to break a record." - To be clear to you, younger viewers, they're not literally breaking a record. Break a record was to promote and to sell a record. - Using pay-life, in this case. - Using cash. - Visitors would include baseball players, actors, mobsters, young reverend, Al Sharpton. And you might walk into the office of the president to find them smoking a joint with super sales or Louis Armstrong. Well, the Peola thing is relevant because they were the target of a Nixon Justice Department investigation. Federal agents rated the office. This is the history of this record label. And besides being like an amusing story of like, near-do-wells of music business, near-do-wells, it's relevant because we simply don't know the names of who those musicians are. They're not listed on the album. They're not listed on the website. My deepest of deep dives all across Discogs and everything led to not a single name. So I'll play the horn loop again without the beats that Rich Harrison added. And then I'll throw them in so you can hear what that does to the loop. (upbeat music) With the beats. (upbeat music) - That snare makes it more driving. Such a difference. And you know, all this time that I've been living with this song, I thought that he had maybe added like, you know, an actual bass guitar or something in there because just by edit that 808, I hear more bass there than in just the sample itself. - I believe there's some bass added as well. - Okay. - I don't know if he played. - It might be an actual thing. - I don't know if you think there are any live instruments that Rich has added here as it just sample and maybe like. - It's very possible because I know he has the skills. I know that he is a player of instruments. So-- - Maybe even keyboard bass might be added in there. - There's also just in the original sample though that eighth note, don, don, don, don, that throbbing bass line is in there. Here's the sample by itself again. Just as a reminder. (upbeat music) But I think he, to your point, before of combining the old and the new, I think the addition of both what we heard, which is an 808 kick, another kick from an unknown sample source and what sounds like it could be an 808 snare. I'm not really sure, but those drum machine and sampled beats on top of the original loop make it sound really modern, at least to my ear. I'll just play that beat again and then I'll add the sample. (upbeat music) So that's a super modern NPC sounding beat. (upbeat music) And that little glissando at the end is so key. Buh. - Yeah, absolutely. - I gotta know who these guys are. They glissando, they stow, they did all this valuable work in the horn section to give us that hook, the hooky hook. Okay, and now let's play that second loop. It sounded like this originally. (upbeat music) I love that. We don't have enough of that anymore. We should bring that back. Bring back the bowser kind of like. - This guy with a really deep voice, yeah. - So that percussion loop was pitched down two half steps and a whole step like this. (upbeat music) Doesn't sound that much different, but then when you shift the BPM, drop the tempo but 14 BPM, we get this. (upbeat music) And by the way, let's not forget that stab at the very beginning. Super crucial. Those horn players that a lot of work on this tune, right? So those are the two sample chops from the same song, and we heard that they are in sequence. And that forms the bedrock of the tune. Now, this part is really interesting because in the original, the timekeeping is a little, it's really funky and it's really syncopated. And if you listen to that kick, two E and a two E and a one E and a two E and a, it's a syncopated sixteenth note, two E and a. But it doesn't have that. It's very dancer friendly. I guess you're like winning in it. It's very kind of latin. It's got a little bit of a light. Absolutely. It's also groove versus I feel. I also see like belly dancers. I feel like I'm being seduced by the rhythm. There's a wiggle. It's got a wiggle too. Absolutely. I just play for you the beats that Rich Harrison added. And by the way, that whistle is really buried, but you hear it kind of pop up a little bit. Is that from him? It's in his tracks. And I think it actually might be a simpty code. If I be simpty, I'm not actually sure what the origin of that whistle is. Rich Harrison famously hard to find on, he's not on Instagram. There's a lot of interviews with him. It seems like that kind of guy, you know, a little elusive on the explanations. I can totally see it. And I love the drums on this song. I think I hear a little bit of a go-go influence, a little bit of a DC influence, not in terms of even how the music is played, but just how it ultimately comes across. When you go to DC, some of the foundation of go-go was people going to DC and there'd be kids beating on those empty pick buckets. And so that idea of like a lot of percussion, like this is almost like the opposite of what the Neptune's are doing right now, because there's stuff that's so stripped down and minimalist and it's perfectly perfected way. But like what Rich is doing feels more like it could be like a little bit of 808, but a whole bunch of those kids beating on those paint buckets, you know what I mean? That was my first thought when I heard this and so many of his other really big songs. They always have like really active percussion all over the place. Yes. To drive the point home about what Rich's production did, as much as what we're hearing is super simple here. Cool. Right? Remember that this percussion loop originally had this like, where's the one kind of feeling? It's not driving you, it's not giving you a down beat and a back beat in a very explicit way, I would say. So by adding that, it adds up to this. Cool. Boom. That's him. Now we're going. One. Two. Can I pitch a theory? It's a theory. I think he thinks that that stab that you mentioned earlier is doing the work. That stab is on the one. So that's what's going to carry you through, not just four, but eight bars. I think that's right. I think you're right. Yeah. That's like the one the James Brown one, that's very James Brown, the one because once you have that locked in, you can get kind of loose and maybe float around a bit. But then if you get a little bit lost at the end of the two bar loop, we're going to get you right back home. Yeah. That stab. So this is a story that I love. So apparently like Rich had been holding on to this beat for just the right artist. And when Beyoncé was like, hey, let's have a movie. Like he was like, yes, okay, this is it. This is the artist that I want. And you know, sometimes it happens with us creatives. You get so happy that like, you know, this dream collaboration is coming. You celebrate too soon. He went out and he went freaking hard. He decides he's going to go out. He's going to have a great time. He went a little too far and he shows up the next day late and hung over. So he's not really pleasing the queen in his presence. Rich plays the beat that we just heard. And she's not totally sold yet. She wasn't completely sold. So she tells him she's going to step out real quick and basically grab a birthday gift for Kelly. Kelly rolling. And when she comes back, she says she wants to hear what else he has. Exactly. And importantly, before she steps out, interestingly and importantly, she happens to look in the mirror and says to herself and Rich in the room, man, I am looking real crazy right now. So then she leaves the room. Rich sits down and he's got two hours with his beat and he's got to come up with something for her to love in two hours. And this is the demo he puts together. That's Rich. That's Rich. That's Rich Harrison with the hook. And here's verse one. I'm going to cut to the chorus and keep up with all of it. And then he came up with this and this, that's all he did, nothing much genius. A freaking monster. Yeah. That is insane. He's a beat maker. He's a songwriter. He's a singer. He does it all. As a fit of I would say, just stop. That's dumb. Yeah. That is how it done, bro. That's so good. Yeah. It's all there. Minus the bridge, which is majorly important. And we will be talking about and giving shine to you in a minute. There's no JZ verse. But the song crazy in love was ready for Beyonce when she came back. So much respect. You can come up with that much of the song, especially under pressure. Like, people don't understand that studio time costs money. The artist sometimes doesn't have a whole lot of, sometimes they don't have focus, sometimes they don't have a lot of time. The fact that under pressure, he was able to come up with that much. And then for Beyonce, to use her genius to then translate it, you know, and to put it interpret it into my ad. Yes. Layers and sections that didn't exist from now. So do. Drum roll, please. And now we are giving you Ms. Beyonce Knowles' isolated vocals. I really like something I didn't really notice before, which is that Adachi says something like I look and stare so deep in your eyes. And then like seconds, they're like, ice, you know what I mean? And then like time, but like it's not like a typical like time, time, like it's like, it comes well into the next line of the lyrics. That's pretty fun. Yeah. Rich Harrison, I would have never thought that he would have supplied the uh-ohs, you know, maybe everything else in the song, but not the uh-ohs. That might have been my biggest surprise too. Yeah. I think that Rich Harrison, not just the lyrics, not just the melody, not just the verse in the chorus, but also the hook, the uh-oh hook. That was pretty major revelation to hear that in the demo there. Let's hear those uh-ohs. I love that this chorus came about in the organic matter that everything from rehab by Amy Winehouse to like so many of these songs, they just start with a conversation. Totally. Control, Janet Jackson. Let's hear the iconic chorus of Grave Your Love. And that three-part harmony wasn't in the original. I mean, that's- No. Is that all? Yeah. We can say that's all Beyonce, right? That sounds like three Beyonce's. Maybe, you know, 12 Beyonce's stacked up, it's a beautiful harmony, like chilling. I think my favorite new line in the entire song is, got me hoping you'll page me right now. Yeah. And the kids, they're like, what does that mean? Look it up. Skytown. So Beyonce's not the only vocalist on this song. Yeah. Jay-Z. Also on the song, I love the story about how he got into the song at the 11th hour. Like, you know, they wanted him on the song. He comes, he records this whole thing in like 10 minutes and leaves. Yeah. But I think it's one of the most memorable and one of the most memorized Jay-Z verses of all time. Let's hear Jay-Z on Crazy Love. So I'd like Greencore, war like a Greencore Red, you crazy, bring your whole set, Jay-Z in a range. Crazy in a range. They can't figure them out. They're like, they're seeing it. They're seeing it. They're just going to pause there because there's some wonderful, I'd never notice until I heard it in the stems. Yeah. But in that little section, we actually hear Beyonce singing along with the horns that come in in that moment. Oh, I didn't hear that. I never noticed that. But now you'll never unhear it again. Here it is. I didn't hear that part before. I never noticed it. But now you'll never unhear it when you listen to the regular song. It's in there. I'll say what I'll never be able to unhear is just the degree to which Jay-Z's flow. This is why it's impossible. People think they can get up a karaoke, nice to do in a better state of mind. But you can't because he's so on and off the flow, so much like the Tony soprano, the rock handle, like VanXel, like that stuff is not like a typical sort of like on the bar rhyme scheme. It's very on and off the rhythm in a way that I feel like only Jay-Z can do. He said in the past, he wanted to do with rap, with Sinatra and Dunnewood singing, which was not really focused on like singing in the traditional way, but sort of swinging. Swinging it. Swinging it the whole way through. And also like how he says, "Baret" to make a rhyme would bring your whole set. And by the way, I have so much respect for Jay-Z's verse when you actually hear it isolated and you realize all the intricate sort of like syncopation he's doing lyrically through this verse. It did not have to be this good. He clearly cared about delivering like an amazing feature. All right. It's time to get to the bridge. And I think that's it. - I think, you know, Beyonce's got some killer bridges. This is one of the most insane bridges in a good way of all time. - Yeah, let's talk about Beyonce and her bridges because this is where she, in a lot of songs, tends to just sort of take it to a really new place and do some of her most incredible work, both locally, but also like strange things happen with the arrangements. We get extra bars, we get dropouts in the harmony. It just goes to a new place. It's almost like another song is in there briefly in the middle of this other incredible song. - I can't agree more. - This song is not only no exception, it's Neck and Neck fight me for which song is the best Beyonce bridge. It's either this one or single ladies, let's listen and fight in the room afterwards. As I don't know what the right answer is. (laughing) ♪ Only I'm foolish, I don't do this ♪ ♪ I've been playing myself ♪ ♪ Baby, I don't care ♪ ♪ But your love's at the best on me ♪ - And I left out the part where we then transitioned to this crazy over-the-top ad-lib. ♪ Crazy baby, come and look, it's crazy right now ♪ ♪ If the love's coming, look, it's crazy right now ♪ ♪ You crazy baby, come and look, it's crazy right now ♪ - Oh, that's no, that's the no. ♪ Crazy baby, come and look, it's crazy right now ♪ - That note that where I pointed to you, that's my favorite note. - That's your favorite note. - Yeah, because she's like, it's so crazy. Like she starts going minor while her Beyoncé backup singers. - There's no doubting that Rich Harrison wrote a lot of what this song is as a song. And arguably the bulk of all of these hooks, total melodies, the lyrics, and Beyoncé. It's a yes and situation. And Beyoncé comes in because the killer performance murders it based on what's on paper, so to speak, and then adds to it. Oh, it's so interesting about the bridge there is like, as she does with so many songs. Like in single ladies, it's not your typical eight bar, middle eight bridge. It's like 12 bars. The song, it's 10 bars long. And that's really part of what makes the magic happen because the added two bars, your brain, you've heard so many songs with bridges that are eight bars, that it's like, where is she going? You get wonderfully lost. I think she takes it in these directions that are unexpected melodically. And the tension that's built by extending it and added two bars is part of the magic. It all comes together in this really special way. That makes this neck and neck for my favorite bridge with single ladies. ♪ Don't crave into the dreams of the world ♪ ♪ I'm like that time of the sun ♪ ♪ Your love is a wonder ♪ - You left out a deja vu is another Beyonce song with an outstanding bridge. - So is that our fight me? I'm going in single ladies. - No, you know what? I'm actually going to say, I'm going to go to the Richardson round saying, I think that the bridge that everybody in the world is sleeping on is actually one of the bridges that he did for Amory. Let's play the bridge from talking about. ♪ What's it for me? ♪ ♪ So much to say I don't know ♪ ♪ That's what I'm talking about ♪ ♪ So much to say I don't know ♪ - All right, Lexi, what can you tell us about the splits on this song? - All right, so Rich Harrison is 37.5% of the 100% publishing pie. Ms. Nolz is herself 7.5%. Mr. Carter, Jay-Z, gets 5%, and half of the publishing on Crazy in Love goes to Eugene Record from The Shylights. - 50% of the publishing. - Can I just say a part of me is really happy about that because usually I feel like these old black musicians and singers don't get a big piece of the pie. So I'm actually happy that happened here. - We love it when black musicians get paid, but none of the musicians we heard, all of the sample phantoms are not getting paid, and this is not only a sample phantom situation. It's also what I call credit ghosts, 'cause Eugene Record is in the credits, but he's not in the song. He's the soul songwriter of the original Shylights song. Therefore, he's the only one in the credits in the Beyonce song Crazy in Love, but you'll notice you're not hearing any vocals. - You're not hearing any singing. - Sure. - So there's a big disconnect between what you're hearing, who's credited, who's being paid. It's one of these things that's a real like problem. We haven't quite fixed with copyright and publishing. - To his credit, and we know that he's a singer, not necessarily the musician, but I would think that he's probably wrote the song and then worked with him. I mean, this is one of the things that we don't know. - This is where we have this agreement. I mean, across a lot of episodes, he probably wrote the song, but there's the way copyright works and publishing works. It doesn't strike me. It doesn't, I think, strike the average listener is being logical that as the songwriter, all the money that comes from this song sampling would go to a record label and an individual, neither of whom are what you're hearing. - Well, I think it's probably safe to say, we don't know if he wrote the song and gave it to these musicians or if they sort of came up with the song. So the fact is, we don't know. - The strong likelihood is that he wrote a lot of it and that the musicians tend to come up with parts that are based on loosely on something that was quote unquote written. - Is there anything that says this song was produced by or arranged by? - So the only credits beyond Eugene Record on the song, and they're not part of the publishing. They didn't get paid beyond the session fee. Would have been Willie Henderson, maybe, who's credited as director. And I'm glad you asked, 'cause there's this mysterious second credit, which is arranged by Eugene Record and quote, the people's paraphernalia, which is a credit that I found, the least I've ever found on a Google search in my whole life was the people's paraphernalia. What does that refer to? Is that a group of people? Is that a joke that they had that day? Who knows? - Knowing just about as little as you do. I would argue that it sounds like Eugene, 'cause I was wondering who got the arranged by a credit. It sounds like he was at least, at the very least, leading these session musicians in a certain musical direction. So I don't think it's bad that Eugene is getting this credit. - No. - But it was great to know who those musicians were and what their contributions were. - I think it's really important to speak up for session musicians who are generally speaking. They work from gig to gig. They get a flat session fee. It's usually not a lot of money. There's a lot of pride in the work being like first call. They call me, but the contributions of session musicians from frequently crossed the line into what would be by any objective measure, songwriting contributions. But we consider songwriting in copyright law in America, especially to be just the lyrics and just the melody. So by that definition Eugene record is the songwriter. But you are hearing none of the lyrics. There are no lyrics in this section. - That's really losing me though, because you're saying he's the songwriter. That's more than just lyrics though. - But in my experience, session musicians make contributions that are unpaved and uncredited. And that to me is unfair. - Oh no, no, no, I totally get it. I think we might be discussing two slightly different things. I'm saying that I think there are times when there's one guy on a song with eight instruments and he told each instrument, "Hey, you play this and you play this and you play this." And it's very like, almost like to a Wes Anderson degree, he's telling them what to do and how to do it. In which case, I don't love the flat fee for the day, but it does kind of make sense. Versus, sometimes I think they come in and there's, like you said, a very fluid line between what you're asked to play and what you're actually contributing, which may definitely cross into a situation where they deserve some splits. But I also think what you're saying, which I 100% agree with, is that the copyright laws haven't kept up with that. And so when you sample a guitar off of a song, where the songwriter didn't even come up with that guitar lick, it doesn't keep up with that kind of sampling. And on that, we're 100% aligned. Yeah, so these guys basically are all sample phantoms, like to the nth degree, 'cause sometimes our sample phantoms, the performers who are in the sound that is used in the sample, but not in the publishing. Sometimes those guys, we know their names, we don't even know their names. They're sample phantom phantoms. I want to reiterate to the one song nation, if you know who played with the people's paraphernalia or just with the shy lights around this period. Yeah, I'd love to know. I'm sure someone out there knows, maybe Rich Harris. And I'll give you a starting point, by the way, for those sleuths, in the YouTube clip of O-Girl, there is a band behind them. If anyone wants to slow that down and try to identify, 'cause there's horn players, conga players, those are probably the guys. No idea who they are. Would love your ideas. So after this song, Rich Harris and Blue, the fuck up, he went on to write and produce Amory's one thing. ♪ This one thing that got me dripping ♪ ♪ This one thing that got me dripping ♪ And Jennifer Lopez is, "Get Right." ♪ You know this time and I, we can get right ♪ ♪ Oh, the night is up, we can get right ♪ So originally, "Get Right" was actually a song called "Ride" and it was actually written and recorded with Usher. But it didn't make the cut for Usher's album. Harrison re-worded it for J-Lo, but let's hear a little bit of this. I know this is my first time hearing it. Let's hear a little bit of Usher's "Ride." ♪ It's the light that you look at me ♪ ♪ Faded, that feels like me ♪ That's, that's, that's rich, that's rich. ♪ Watch your feet and do the night, never true, we never spend no time ♪ - He has a sort of motif, aridnic cadence that he always sees. - Yes. - A lot of times, yeah. Sounds familiar, sounds a little bit crazy and love to be explicit. - No, I totally agree. But can I say something also on the behalf of Rich Harrison? Like, I'm sure at the time some of us are like, "Oh, Rich Harrison, he kind of does the same kind of beat every time." But sometimes that's what we want. That's what we want to hear. It reminds it the first time we liked it the second time. - It reminds me of the dance producer Todd Edwards. All of Todd Edwards' remixes sound very similar in their composition. But it sounds great, it always works. So it's like, I want to hear more Todd Edwards and I want to hear more of Rich Harrison. Rich, if you're listening, hit us up, man, DM us. We'd love to do one of your other songs. - So, D'Alo, what do you think the legacy of Crazy in Love is? - I mean, the legacy of this song and the music video, it's so pronounced. I do feel like it actually did a brand new era of R&B star for which she still reigns on top, you know, despite, despite a couple of years where I think maybe Rihanna pushed ahead to this day, Beyonce is an event. Whenever she comes out and performs, it's an event. And it all started with that strut. I'll never forget that classic moment in the video where she comes walking out. I just saw this neutrally XCX song. I think she's actually just in the video. The song is by an artist named A.G. Cook, but the song is called Residue and at the very beginning she's in downtown LA and she walks out doing the strut. And I feel like she just taught a whole generation of, this is how you do R&B singer pop diva. And it's the way that only I can do it. But this is how I do it. And this is going to be sort of for that generation what Michael Jackson's low-town 25 performance was. If we have time, I'd love to show the audience just a clip of that famous music video, luxury. What do you think the legacy of crazy in love is? I completely agree. Crazy in love is the beginning of Beyonce next level where she goes from being already a superstar with Destiny's child. And in the group format to a solo mega, mega global, like forever superstar universe, the entire Milky Way, the Galaxy, yeah, the brand, all of that. And I don't know, I was just, I was rewatching Homecoming the other day, which is one of the greatest music movies of all time for Coachella performance in 2018. You know, it's not for nothing that she starts the show with crazy in love. It's her signature tune. Yeah, probably always will be on her tombstone. Hopefully that'll be in 78 years. But what an incredible song. Let's listen to a little bit of that Coachella performance. There's one more part of the crazy in love legacy that I don't think you quite realize. What? What is that? Is Beyonce here? Ladies and gentlemen, no. But when I first started watching your videos on TikTok, this was probably the first time I saw one of your TikTok videos. And yeah, this is a couple of years back. And I remember thinking, ah, this guy's really good. I hope that I get to work with him one day. Oh, that's so sweet. And lo and behold, here we are years late. Here we are. And it ends after this episode. No, it doesn't end under this episode. Stay tuned. Okay, actually, it's time for one more song. This is the segment where we share a deep cut or a hidden gem with you, the one song nation and with each other, luxury, you go for it. All right, well, I'm going to break when I rules, which is that the t-shirts I wear, which are different every week, have no correlation to anything we ever do on the show today. I'm actually going to play a song from the band television personalities, who shirt I am currently wearing. And by the way, yes, it does say it does mention the Beatles, the picture of Brian Jones from The Rolling Stones. This is one of this is a great kind of lesser known post punk band. The song is called Part Time Punks. What if I like shabby? It is sweetly naively low five long time L.A. Denizens will recognize part time punks. That's a party that's been at the echo for many years. And I do believe this is where it gets its title. What about you, D'ya? What about your one more song for the week? I am a big fan of a lot of the sort of neo-UK garage that's coming out these days, because I just love the general sound. And here's one by P. Raleil. I think I know I'm parallel, but it's spelled like P dash Raleil. And Sam Deely, this is a song called Blessings. Speaking of Todd Edwards, this is very Todd Edwards-y. That's like, what is that 132 BPM? Dude, you nailed it. It is 132. I like that we're like picking up the pace so to begin. Yeah, that felt like 132. I love garage because it's just, it sounds cool. And, you know, for some of us who remember, you know, Craig David and Arthur Dodger, like, the fact that people are doing new versions of that over there. I say, let's break it over here. Let's make LA garage. Listen, we've been talking about Todd Edwards. It's a second Todd Edwards mentioned on the show. I heard a lot of Todd Edwards in that. One of the godfathers of UK garage, but he lives in LA. He's from New Jersey. I really like Todd Edwards. We got to find out where we can spend some Todd Edwards. Todd, we're coming for you. As always, if you have an idea for one song, you can find us on Instagram and TikTok. You can find me on Instagram @diallodiay. And on TikTok @diallo grill. You can find me on Instagram @luxxur y and on TikTok @luxuryxx. You can follow our podcast on Instagram and TikTok @onesongpodcast for exclusive content. You can also watch full episodes of One Song on YouTube, just search for one song podcast. We'd love it if you'd like and subscribe. And, be sure to check out the One Song Spotify playlist for all the songs we've discussed in our episodes. You can find the link in our episode description. And if you've made it this far, well, damn it. You're part of the One Song Nation. Show us love. Give us five stars. Leave a review. Keep them two star reviews to yourself. And instead of this episode to a fellow music fan, it really helps keep the show going. All right, Lexury, help me in this thing. I'm producer DJ, songwriter, musicologist, and every Friday night from 10 to midnight KCRW DJ Luxury. And I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ Diallero. This is One Song. We will see you next time. This episode is produced by Melissa Dwayne. That's our video editor's Casey Simon's mixing by Michael Harman and Engineering by Eric Kicks. This shows executive produced by Kevin Harman, Mike Stein, Brian Smiley, Eric Eddings, Eric Wilde, and Leslie Guam.