The hidden Led Zeppelin sample on Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’
Musically, Beyonce and Led Zeppelin might seem worlds apart, but that’s not the case. In 2016, the American singer released her sixth studio album, Lemonade, which has widely been accepted as her most accomplished work to date. The album not only featured collaborations with some of modern music’s biggest names, such as Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd, but it also featured a mass of samples.
Amongst samples from artists that you would typically associate with Beyonce’s pop and R&B sounds, such as Soulja Boy and OutKast, you can also find a sample from classic rockers Led Zeppelin.
Beyonce was first introduced to Led Zeppelin by Mike Myers on the set of Goldmember, where she played Austin Powers’ sidekick Foxxy Cleopatra. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Myers shared: “Beyoncé was a dream. She was the loveliest person in the world and just knocked it out of the park, she was always listening to music. She said to me, ‘Mike, what are you listening to right now?’ And I said, ‘Oh, I’m just listening to Led Zeppelin at the moment.”
He continued: “And she went, ‘I think I will listen to that Led Zeppelin’. She had never heard of it. She was so young and all the crew was like, ‘Awwww’. Then, in the next day, she was doing this (shaking head, enjoying the music) and I said, ‘What are you listening to?’ She went, ‘Led Zeppelin! They’re great!'”
Cut to 2016, and it seems that Myers’ recommendation had a lasting impact on the star. In her collaboration with The White Stripes’ Jack White, ‘Don’t Hurt Yourself’, parts of the Led Zeppelin track ‘When the Levee Breaks’, from their 1971 album Led Zeppelin IV, can be heard.
Discussing their collaboration together, White shared: “You know, I just talked to her and she said, ‘I wanna be in a band with you’. […] I’ve always loved her voice — I mean, I think she has the kind of soul-singing voice of the days of Betty Davis or Aretha Franklin. She took just sort of a sketch of a lyrical outline and turned into the most bodacious, vicious, incredible song. I don’t even know what you’d classify it as — soul, rock and roll, whatever. ‘Don’t Hurt Yourself’ is incredibly intense; I’m so amazed at what she did with it.”
The song was greeted with significant praise upon its release, with Beyonce’s vocal performance compared to the likes of Janis Joplin and Tina Turner. The Zeppelin drum beat drives the song forward as the singer repeats the lines “Let it be, let it be, let it be” before shouting: “Who the fuck do you think I am?/ You ain’t married to no average bitch, boy.”
It turns out a pairing between Beyonce, Jack White and Led Zeppelin is a match made in heaven. Listen to the track below.
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