Single Review: Beyonce – ‘7/11’
3 min read
Now, I don’t want to exaggerate, but I’m pretty sure Beyonce is the best thing that has ever happened to the world. In history. Ever. I’m not sure why someone so obviously from a higher plane of existence would keep busying herself with us plebs down here on earth, but thankfully she does, and this week graced us with another surprise song styling from her magical vault of hit making madness.
Since Queen Bey shocked the world by quietly releasing the complete visual album Beyonce last December I have thought of her as so much more than a pop star. She is quite clearly the greatest entertainer of our time, but that’s not all. Beyonce is a layered package. A beautiful, talented onion. With this self titled album, she found a way to give us a complete body of work. No longer did we just want a charting single, but to see this thing in it’s entirety. She took us on a journey into her world and in this day and age where everything is so quickly dismissed that is no mean feat. Add to this her documentary, Life Is But A Dream and the last few years have shown a Beyonce that is far beyond the cookie cutter pop star. Song writer, vocalist, performer, mother, wife, friend and okay, almost human. That album has since gone platinum, and to celebrate the release of the Beyonce: Platinum Edition Box Set, we get two new singles, the first being 7/11.
And like the woman herself, 7/11 is part of an overall package. On it’s own, the single is cool. Heavily rooted in R’n’B, Beyonce raps her way through a blatantly braggy party track that if full of swagger. It has all the attitude of Yonce and Flawless, bringing us into the aspect of her world that is poppin’ bottles and dropping’ bass. But as always with Bey we look to a bigger picture, and to get the complete scope of her vision for 7/11 it must encompass the video, and the video could not be more opposite in attitude. Filmed in a hotel room on a camera phone, Beyonce and her backing dancers make fun of the very attitude the song delivers, twerking in the bathroom and scooting around on swivel chairs. Gone are the flashy, glittery costumes, replaced with sweats. There’s no champagne in sight, switched out for red party cups. Sexiness swapped for silliness, and the result is a candid, fun and unexpected overall product. She proves that even stripped of all the glitz and glamour, she reigns supreme.
The lyrics are repetitive and simple, mainly describing her dance moves. Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap it / Foot up, my foot up / Hold up now my foot up / I’m spinnin’ my foot up / Foot up yeah my foot up. It certainly hails from Run The World territory, whose variations on the lyrics Who run the world? Girls / Who run this mutha? had 6 writers and 4 producers (as opposed to Bohemian Rhapsody’s solo writer Freddie Mercury for example). You can’t call it lyrically brilliant, but the songs a hell of a lot of fun and fits in well to the Beyonce bigger picture. Bow down bitches, we are not worthy.
