Beyoncé is redefining the pop star and the meaning of the diva (a pointlessly gendered term, considering that male pop stars often exhibit all the traits of this type of female celebrity). A lot happened when she released a remix of “Flawless,” on Saturday at midnight, that features the rapper Nicki Minaj.
Here’s what she pulled off: the original of “Flawless” featured an excerpt from a TED talk by writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The track is hard but swaying, a relaxed beat that backed Beyoncé as she praises her own flawlessness (axiomatic now) while preaching power to young girls, telling unnamed “bitches” to “bow down.” Adichie’s speech, in a different tone, addressed the societal pressure on girls to marry, to compete for the attention of suitors, and to be sexual beings, not for themselves but for men. Beyoncé’s lyrics do the opposite. Beyonce’s verses are about “waking up like this” (“this” being an enviable state) and having things like flawless diamonds, which for someone else might puncture the narrative and deflate it. The irrational reason I don’t mind is that I’m charmed by Beyoncé; the more coherent defense is that Beyoncé doesn’t often celebrate the material girl, so it’s easy to give her a mulligan. The song is a strong bricolage, proud while calm, though not thoroughly flawless.
The remix is flawless, though, because it is conceptually coherent and ferocious, and neither performer makes a mistake. No flaws. Beyoncé’s words fold in recent gossip and nod subtly to the OutKast reunion, and she outshines her guest, who specializes in outshining hosts. Minaj was supposed to release “Anaconda,” the second single from “The Pink Print,” last Monday, but that release was pushed to today. (The single is now out.) But “Anaconda” doesn’t stand a chance against the “Flawless” remix, fun as Minaj’s reworking of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s ode to butts is. Minaj claims royal-ass status, and she asserts her right to pick a partner. (Both “Anaconda” and the “Flawless” remix are now at the top of Billboard’s “Realtime” chart.)
The music for the “Flawless” remix is the same as the original, as produced by Hit-Boy, Beyoncé, Rey Reel, and Boots. For the remix, it is just thinned out and reorganized. Beyoncé sounds less like a regal instructor this time than a deep-voiced ninja, subsuming other artists into her performance. She sounds more than a little like Rihanna in the opening, adopting a West Indian lilt and lifting up into a cobra hover, speak-singing about sex: “It stay Yoncé, oh Yoncé in that lingerie, on that chardonnay, it’s gonna touch down like a runway.” Then, smoothly, she slips into a harder register for her airstrike on rumors about the video of an elevator tussle between Jay Z and her sister Solange: “And we could go around and get some good karma, but, no, we escalate, up in this bitch like elevators. Of course, sometimes shit go down when it’s a billion dollars on an elevator.” (“Elevators” is an old hit by OutKast, who played Lollapalooza on Friday.) She repeats the last line a few times, so if you thought that security camera-footage was your business, here’s your response. The Knowles and Carters? They’re different from you and me. And the constant rumors about jealousy or rancor within the Knowles family? Down they go, struck through with a steely bridge: “Momma taught me good home training, my daddy taught me how to love my haters, My sister taught me I should speak my mind, my man made me feel so God-damn fine. I’m flawless!” Who is going to argue? (We haven’t seen the video yet, but apparently it’s finished.) So much for the divorce rumors, at least for a news cycle. And several times, the horns from another Outkast song, “SpottieOttieDopaliscious,” drop in. Beyoncé isn’t just a reigning pop star, she has N.S.A. reach, hoovering in culture around her, not simply noting and approving of trends but sometimes anticipating them and pushing them in her preferred direction.
Before she hands over the song to Minaj, she drops to a soft voice and summarizes “Flawless,” and her position in the world: “I’m the shit, I’m the shit, I’m the shit. I want everyone to feel like this, tonight.” She is our universal pop ego, and we grow with her self-celebration every time she hands it back to us. And, if you were looking for news clues the first time around, notice on the second listen that she raps and sings at peak levels.
Minaj then sets up her own shooting range and doesn’t miss a target. She mentions “Monster,” her career-boosting appearance on the Kanye. (The politics of the video are another matter.) On that track, she manages to out-rhyme West, Jay Z, and Rick Ross, using at least two voices and sounding deranged, or at least engaging a fluid sense of personalities—is she one, two, or three Minajs? “Forget Barbie, fuck Nicki cause she’s fake. She on a diet, but her pockets eating cheesecake.” She knocks out her own appropriation of the Barbie imagery, which is bold and disorienting, and then tucks in a tidy metaphor for getting paid. Sorry, boys.
On the “Flawless” remix, Minaj uses a low, grainy timbre, bringing punch line after punch line. “Yo, like M.J. doctor, they killing me. Propofol, I know they hope I fall, but tell them winning is my motherfucking protocol, because I score before I ever throw the ball. These bitches washed up and ain’t no fucking soap involved.” If anybody tells you that Minaj can’t rhyme, start with that stanza. It’s not that “Anaconda” isn’t a fun, solid track, but the synergy of the “Flawless” remix hits a peak of cultural importance, like a press conference. Minaj closes with her rapid-fire style, substituting energy for authority, because she simply can’t silence the class after Beyoncé already has.
And Beyoncé is redefining how the means of production in pop work, and she’s doing it in ways that favor the underdog. Now anyone can drop tracks and albums out of nowhere like Beyoncé now, even though they won’t necessarily shake the earth. But the millions foolishly spent on ad campaigns may soon be a thing of the past. When your track is good enough, you can simply claim a weekend, or a whole summer, without asking permission.
Correction: A previous version of this post credited Boots as the primary producer of “Flawless.”
