Okay ladies, #Beyoncé has had us all in formation since she dropped her hit single from the #Lemonade album just one day prior to Super Bowl 50. But what if I told you that it was actually a 21-year-old young man who came up with the concept? Well according to the young star’s primary producer, #RaeSremmurd rapper Swae Lee wasn’t just a mere song writer on the project… he actually created the very hook that we’ve all been singing.
After #SwaeLee showed up in the “Lemonade” writers credits under “Formation,” Producer Mike Will sat down with The New York Times and spilled the details on just how much influence the 21-year-old actually had on the hit record and how it came about. “We’re on the way to Coachella, and we’re just coming up—we just freestyle, you know?—and Swae Lee said, ‘O.K., ladies, now let’s get in formation.” According to the Super Producer, the line was put into a phone voice note, but while Swae Lee reportedly has an excessive amount of said notes, this particular one could not go unused. “Dog, we got to do that “get in formation” shit.’ That could be a hard song for the ladies. Some woman-empowerment shit. Like, ‘Ladies, let’s get in line, let’s not just fall for anything.’ I’m seeing that vision.”
After the line was studio recorded, it eventually got into the hands of the Queen B herself. “We were just thinking about it being a female anthem,” he explained. “Because I knew I just wanted a banger with Beyoncé, like a ‘Single Ladies,’ but I wanted it to be a new kind of chant.”
While Lee’s line inspired the anthem, according to Mike Will, the song itself was all Beyoncé. “[She took] one little idea we came up with on the way to Coachella, put it in a pot, stirred it up, and came with this smash. She takes ideas and puts them with her own ideas, and makes this masterpiece. She’s all about collaborating.”
