“Crazy in Love (f/ Jay-Z)” – Beyonce
(Words/music: Shawn Carter, Rich Harrison, Beyoncé Knowles, Eugene Record, available on Dangerously in Love, Columbia Records 2003)
One of my personal reasons for writing this blog was to learn about my taste in music, and while I’ve realized that my taste evolved gradually over time, there are occasional changes in perspective that catch me buy surprise. Beyonce is an excellent example. I never really cared for any of the Destiny’s Child singles and can only think of one or two of them off the top of my head. I remember Destiny’s Child being around, but I never paid much attention to them. “Crazy in Love” stopped me in my tracks, though. I loved it instantly, which made putting up with its ubiquity a little easier. Since then, I’ve enjoyed a handful of Beyonce singles, but none in the same way as “Crazy in Love.” The question becomes – why did “Crazy in Love” grab hold of me when all of the Destiny’s Child singles couldn’t even grab my attention.
I’m tempted to give credit to the horn riff sampled from the Chi-Lites’ “Are You My Woman” and that’s certainly the attention grabber, but there’s a lot of wonderful things going on underneath these punching horns. While the horn sample locks the chorus into a steady rhythmic pulse, the beat flows free during the verses. In particular, the samba cowbells fill the space between the backbeat, letting Beyonce’s vocals dance around the track. Even though she rarely strays outside of her vocal comfort zone, Beyonce lets the tone of her voice and her personality shine through the vocal mix. In particular, she delivers the “ut-ohs” in a giddy, machine gun-like stutter that locks right into the beat. Maybe she was taking note from her beau Jay-Z, who turns in another solid guest verse. Like Beyonce, Jay’s verse seems focused on creating specific rhythmic patterns, as Jay picks out his allusions and internal rhymes (“handle rock like Van Exel” being my favorite) as much for their sound as for their meaning. It’s a solid verse, but even Jay-Z, one of hip hop’s biggest stars, knows where the spotlight is on this track and wisely steps out of the spotlight just in time to let Beyonce take that horn riff one more time. It’s a masterful pop composition because it knows that the focus should be on Beyonce rather than the melody. Producer Rich Harrison lets the horns announce pop’s new queen and then knows enough to reduce them down to occasional accents in the verse, letting Beyonce charm her way to the top.
More on Beyonce: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm
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