Here She Go: Beyoncé Meshes Memphis And Louisiana Hip Hop Universes With Princess Loko And Mystikal On “I’m That Girl” From Album ‘Renaissance’

Act I of Beyoncé’s seventh studio album, Renaissance, has so many stratospheric levels to it that curating a review of the entire 16-track project is nearly impossible unless it was in the form of a scholarly dissertation or television miniseries. On Thursday (July 28), Beyoncé made another enigmatic contribution to the universe with a celebration of music that dares to merge the red and blue pills in the music matrix for a genre-bending experience like no other.

This genre-bending backflip that Beyoncé does masters the creative stretching necessary to tie the past with the future. There’s nothing shallow about her approach, and that’s made apparent on the very first track of the hour-long album. If you are a fan of music rooted in Black culture, then it isn’t hard to catch the educated slay that the tri-coastal, Southern belle sprinkled all up in “I’M THAT GIRL.”

Did you hear it? That voice sampled at the top of “I’M THAT GIRL” is no other than Memphis hip hop pioneer Princess Loko, real name Andrea Summers. She’s known for her collaborations with Tommy Wright III, another Tennessee music legend, and her association with the rap group, Ten Wanted Men, in the 1990s.

For many years, Loko was considered an underground rap artist, however she garnered widespread acclaim on more than a few singles, including the masterful gangsta banger “Still Pimpin’.” Released in 1995 on Wright’s album, Runnin-N-Gunnin, “Still Pimpin'” featured Loko, alongside Mac T-Dog.

On the track, Loko famously raps, “How the f**k you figure I ain’t a motherf**king pimp when all these n****s be jocking me? / Pimpin’ till the end, make that cheese, nitty green / B***h please, motherf**kers ain’t stopping me / Coming on the scene with the Tommy Hilfiger / N***a self, what you got to make me rich? / Never get the p*ssy ’cause it’s off limits h*e / Runnin’ game when you claiming that other b***h.”

Ayeeee! Fast-forward to Beyoncé’s “I’M THAT GIRL” and just based on the lyrical context where Queen Bey delivers self-affirming statements such as, “Songs sound good, ’cause I’m on that h*e” and “Un-American, I don’t need no friends,” her use of a dynamic talent as Loko makes perfect sense. It’s giving subtextual context and depth, yet the message is pristinely clear, Beyoncé is the one with the Midas touch that got it like that.

As Loko so genuinely relays in so many words, you can’t play the player. It’s the perfect homage to the late rapper, who passed away from congestive heart failure at age 40 in May 2020.

Taking a step back to peep the overall masterpiece, Beyoncé’s somewhat humble brag morphs into three different acts within the 3.28-minute song. The Princess Loko intro that epitomizes the Memphis hip hop sound transitions into Afro-Caribbean dance, clearly an influence of Dominican artist Kelman Duran, who also produces and writes on the song. Meanwhile, Beyoncé provides a dubbed overlay of sultry vocals in her signature style with the assistance of The-Dream’s penmanship.

Then, at the 2:22-minute mark, she switches up her cadence going into a modern rap flow as the beat changes once again. I’m guessing the change of pace is the touch of producer Symbolyc One, who worked with Kanye West on many of his beats. H-Town’s very own Mike Dean, also a Kanye West collaborator, has his own influence sprinkled throughout writing and production.

The energized pace is followed by a surprise throwback at the 3:10 mark, where an instrumental sample of Mystikal’s 1995 down-south, diss record, “Here I Go,” rampages through the finale. The bass-heavy, trunk banger is the 11th track off of the Louisiana rapper’s album, Mind of Mystikal.

He raps, “Y’all motherf**kers better get ready to rumble….You b****es probably couldn’t see me with a bird’s eye view / It’s alive, finna make your head spin / Stop walking the one way to a f**king dead end.”

There’s no doubt that Beyoncé, also a Southern artist with roots in Louisiana, has reached another echelon in her journey where the mindset is to tap into the greatness of the past in order to set a precedent for the future.

See, while so many artists today sample past hits, truth be told, the production is lazy in that there’s no innovative elements added to the samples that refreshes the song, making it the artists’ own. As a result, artists end up doing covers instead of reinventing an old goodie. It works for casual music listeners and those who don’t know their music history, but is utterly despicable for music enthusiasts.

This is not an issue for Beyoncé on “I’M THAT GIRL.” As the title of her album indicates, she is literally executing the mission of “reviving art under the influence of classical models” as it pertains to music from Black artists. Beyoncé understands the assignment. Now the question is, do you?

Listen To “I’M THAT GIRL” Below:

Beyoncé’s Act I: Renaissance is available on major music streaming platforms now.