Arts: Beyonc? Wants You to ?Bow Down?

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Brow Beat Beyoncé Wants You to "Bow Down" By Aisha Harris Posted Monday, Mar 18, 2013, at 03:30 PM ET Though it had been over a year since she released any new solo material, Beyoncé-mania reached a new peak earlier this year when the singer performed at Obama's second inaugural, headlined an epic Super Bowl half-time show, and then released a self-directed (and fairly unrevealing) documentary. She shows no signs of slowing down, dropping a new song unceremoniously on her Tumblr last night. Produced by Hit Boy, who also worked on Jay-Z and Kanye West's "Niggas in Paris," "Bow Down / I Been On," is an aggressive, cocky anthem that finds Beyoncé experimenting with vocal distortion and all the ways she can say that she occupies the throne atop the pop music landscape. What's interesting about the better (and shorter) portion of the song, "Bow Down," is not so much the grandiose, rap-style boasting, nor the repetition of "bitches" (or sometimes, "bishes") in the chorus; Beyoncé's been trading on the "Queen Bey" thing for quite some time, on similarly styled tracks like "Diva" and "Run the World (Girls)." What's alarming is that it seems to be directed at a very specific audience: The women who have criticized her. The opening lyric begins, "I know when you were little girls/ You dreamt of being in my world/ Don't forget it, don't forget it/ Respect that: Bow down, bitches." Beyoncé has typically reserved her egocentric anthems for a vague audience of "haters," but here chooses to pinpoint the women who aren't her biggest fans ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Methods to the Madness Past Their Prime Earth Hour Is a Colossal Waste of Time—And Energy	Advertisement
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