Swae Lee talks about how he got the opportunity to write the hook on Beyoncé’s ‘Formation’
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The Rae Sremmurd artist spoke about writing the hook for Beyoncé’s single “Formation,” and discussed how writing songs for women has challenged him.
Did you know that Swae Lee is behind one of Beyoncé’s most iconic hits?
Talking to “The Breakfast Club,” on Friday (April 3) the Rae Sremmurd artist revealed how he wrote the hook for “Formation,” off of Bey’s 2016 album, “Lemonade.”
“That’s just [Mike Will Made It]. Mike Will don’t ever sleep, he be working all the time,” Swae said about the producer. “That was an opportunity he just brought to me early, randomly.”
He admitted the gig was intimidating, and recalled thinking to himself, “What I got for Beyoncé?”
As we now know, Beyoncé believed he had something special. “Formation” was the lead single off of “Lemonade,” and its video, depicting the Houston singer on top of a sinking cop car, plus its legendary choreography, set the tone for one of her most influential eras.
In 2022, the “Sativa” artist dished about getting to preview the song to Beyoncé on Entertainment Tonight.
“She was feelin’ that,” he said about Beyoncé’s reaction. “I remember the first time I met her. It was crazy, like, her energy is unmatched. She got in there and did her thing. It ended up being one of the biggest songs in the world.”
The Mississippi rapper joins a long line of male rappers who stepped into the booth to deliver some of the most memorable lines sung or rapped by a female artist, verses and hooks that make the club shake as soon as they come on. Lil Yachty famously wrote the City Girls’ anthem “Act Up,” the opening lines of which activate any friend group on a girl’s night out. And Beyoncé fans love to remind people that Drake is a writer on “Heated,” or that Jay-Z’s pen gave us “Alien Superstar” off of the “Renaissance” album.
Breakfast Club host Charlamagne, dubious, asked the 32-year-old “Black Beatles” rapper if he had to get into a “sassy mindset” to write a song for a female artist.
“I had an experience like that. They had me come to the studio and write for a female artist, and I’m just like totally lost. I’m like uhh… ‘My a– fat.’ I’m like how do I write for a female artist?” Swae said, adding it felt like taking Algebra Three.
“The artist ended up telling me, ‘You need to get your shit together,” he added, not revealing the artist’s identity. But, luckily for Swae, he said he got his big break when “No Flex Zone” dropped a week later, launching him and his brother Slim Jxmmi into stardom.