The Man Behind “Girls (Who Run the World)”

Beyonce’s latest album, 4, recently released its smash hit single “Run the World (Girls)” as a powerful anthem behind working women making making moves and holding their power of men who think their running things. But while flaunting the large cheques and making money, Beyonce uses half of the male duo Major Lazer, DJ Switch, not only to producer her epic track, but heavily samples from Major Lazer’s track Pon de Floor, which Switch and legendary house music artist Diplo put together in 2009.

“Girls” release date was pushed forward after it was leaked online in early April, and better received internationally than it was here at home. That might have something to do with the fact that America is still behind the curve when it comes to house music, considering how heavily intertwined the production of “Girls” and Knowles’ aptly named fourth album is with electronic and house elements. Other than track production from Switch, international electronic icons Afrojack (Nick van de Wall) and Diplo (Wesely Pentz) teamed up with The-Dream (Terius Nash) and Adidja Palmer to write and record “Girls”. 4 also includes contributions from Sleigh Bells’ Derek Miller (Does this mean that the DJ O-Face mash up album of Sleigh Bells and Jay-Z tracks will finally be made available to the public again?), trance enthusiast Sia, Tricky (Christopher Stewart) and others.

But at the end of the day, Ms. Knowles is still a hip-hop and R&B artist. Darkchild, Frank Ocean, Kany West, Q-Tip, Ne-Yo, Jim Jonsin and One Republic all laid some tracks for 4, and it still sounds like a hip-hop and R&B album, just with a little more party to it. As Sean Garrett said, “I think we are doing a lot of up-tempo records for this one. She’s in such a good place right now in life that she is interested in making party music”. As electronic tracks and house sounding music is more and more frequently incorporated into Top 40 artists and powerhouse mainstream tracks, you can expect more and more casual listeners to get indulged into the raving genre in the states. As for the girls, we’re glad we get to dance around just a little more with Beyonce’s latest production.

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2 Responses to “The Man Behind “Girls (Who Run the World)””

1. Rosie says:

   July 25, 2011 at 2:28 pm

   4 is my favorite album right now. I love the upbeat tempos that me and my girls can dance and party to. Every Saturday night at about 9 we play 4 and get ready to go out.

   Reply
2. B Hardaway says:

   July 25, 2011 at 2:29 pm

   This is Beyonce’s best, if you ask me. I love all the collaborative efforts to make 4 the phenomenon that it really is. Just an all around fun album.

   Reply