FEATURE:
The Digital Mixtape
IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé on the set of the Crazy in Love video shoot
Beyoncé’s Crazy in Love at Twenty: A Twenty-Song Guide to the Icon
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AN important anniversary…
IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé in a promotional photo for 2022’s RENAISSANCE/PHOTO CREDIT: Mason Poole
is coming up, so it gives me an opportunity to compile a Beyoncé playlist. On 18th May, 2003, her huge hit, Crazy in Love, was released. Featuring JAY-Z, it remains one of her best-known songs. The lead single from her 2003 debut album, Dangerously in Love, it is a superb song that introduced this remarkable solo act. Having been a member of Destiny’s Child before – and her final album with the group was with 2004’s Destiny Fulfilled -, maybe there was a mixture of confidence about her solo ability, and some judgment about whether she would be able to step out alone and do something individual and good. Those doubts were answered with the emphatic and anthemic Crazy in Love. Ahead of its twentieth anniversary, I wanted to both celebrate a song that went to number one in the U.S. and U.K. and provide a playlist for those who want an introduction to this icon. Maybe you are not a huge Beyoncé fan, but this playlist should help you out. Crazy in Love used samples from the Chi-Lites' 1970 song, Are You My Woman (Tell Me So). I love how you get this R&B base, but there is Rap and Disco elements. Maybe speaking about JAY-Z, this song is about the heroine losing her mind over this new love. It is one of her very best songs, and you still hear it played a lot today. Last year’s RENAISSANCE was Beyoncé’s seventh solo album. She has also released an album with JAY-Z as The Carters. EVERYTHING IS LOVE came out in 2018. The Dangerously in Love album is twenty in June, and I know there will be celebration closer to the time. I wonder whether there will be an anniversary edition or anything tied to that event. I wanted to mark the approaching twentieth anniversary of the majestic Crazy in Love with a twenty-song ultimate Beyoncé guide. If you need to hear the very best of this queen of music, then you should check out…
THE songs below.