Jay-Z Said He Gave Beyoncé ‘Street Credibility’ by Working With Her on 1 Song

Jay-Z and Beyoncé rarely discuss their relationship publicly, but both have talked about the music they’ve made together. Over the course of their relationship, the married couple have collaborated a number of times. Jay-Z said that a song from her debut solo album helped establish her identity as an artist because of his presence on it.

Jay-Z said Beyoncé gained street cred when he worked on one of her songs

In 2002, Jay-Z and Beyoncé collaborated for the first time on his song “’03 Bonnie and Clyde.” He said the choice to work with her was an easy one.

“I wanted a singer on the song, and I knew one who was exceptional,” he told Vanity Fair. 

He believed that they helped each other out musically. She brought her pop audience to him, and he added something to her song “Crazy in Love.”

“We exchanged audiences,” he said. “Her records are huge Top 40 records, and she helped ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ go to Number 1. What I gave her was a street credibility, a different edge.”

Beyoncé spoke about watching Jay-Z work on the song

According to Beyoncé, “Crazy in Love” was a challenge for her.

“‘Crazy in Love’ was really hard to write, because there was so much going on,” she said, adding, “I let Columbia hear it with the rest of my album, and people liked it, but they didn’t go crazy for it. I was so stressed, because I thought, I don’t have a single. I mean, I had written — what? — seven, eight number one songs with Destiny’s Child, in a row. But I guess if you haven’t written a number one song in three months, you have to prove yourself again.”

She thought that bringing Jay-Z onto the song would make audiences more receptive to it.

“I knew the song wasn’t complete, because the horns were so old-school, and I thought if a rapper was on it people would give it more of a chance — because rappers can flow over old-school beats and people accept it,” she said. “So Jay came into the studio, and it could have been 10 minutes, it could have been 2 minutes — he listened to it and recorded this rap without writing anything down. He just sits there and his mouth starts moving silently, and all of a sudden he does this rap.”

She said the way he put the rap together astonished her.

“I have seen him do this many times, but this was like three in the morning,” she said. “He had to be exhausted, I was exhausted. I don’t know how he did this … He rapped on the song and he added a lot to the energy of it. It really completed the song.”

She thought the song showed a different side of herself 

Beyoncé said she hoped her solo career would allow her to pour more of herself into her music.

“I always held back in Destiny’s Child, because I was comfortable in a group and felt that I didn’t have to do anything 100 percent, because there were other people onstage with me,” she said. “I would not lose myself or go all the way.”

She said that she shocked people in the music video for the song. Jay-Z also appeared in the video.

“[W]hen we did that video, everybody was like, ‘Who is that?’” she said. “Because for the first time I danced all the way. I let go.”