Ezra Koenig, Boots & Father John Misty Explain How “Hold Up” And “6 Inch” Materialized On ‘Lemonade’
Beyoncé is truly music’s greatest curator, and it’s a fact that’s made readily apparent with the release of her sixth studio album, Lemonade. There are about 15 writers credited for penning the dreamy number “Hold Up” alone, a track that includes interpolations/samples of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps,” Andy Williams’ “Can’t Get Used To Losing You” and Soulja Boy’s “Turn My Swag On.” And now album co-conspirators Father John Misty (real name Joshua Tillman), Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig and producer Boots revealed how they ended up being a part of Queen Bey’s cast and crew.
As it turns out, the interpolation of Animal Collective‘s “My Girl” in the moody scorcher “6 Inch” was a pure fluke.”You write it and sing it and think ‘That’s fucking great!!!'” said Boots in a Genius annotation. “Everyone high fives and you’re all geniuses for fourteen seconds, but it turns out it’s great because someone else already fucking wrote it. That song is a jam.”
Similarly, the creation of “Hold Up” started from a random tweet that Ezra Koenig posted in 2011 referencing YYY’s “Maps,” which ultimately became the backbone of the song when he was workshopping it with Diplo. He explains further how the sample became the official track below:
it’s not that complicated – but some ppl are confused so here’s the short version: pic.twitter.com/Ma7P4HEngP
— Ezra Koenig (@arzE) April 25, 2016
songs become tweets, tweets become songs – it’s the way of the world
— Ezra Koenig (@arzE) April 25, 2016
Tillman’s contribution to “Hold Up” came about a year and a half ago when Emile Haynie asked him to listen to the original minute-long demo containing only the sample and the hook. At the time, Bey was just looking for lyricists, but Tillman went above and beyond the call of duty.
“I went crazy and recorded a verse melody and refrain too that, unbelievably – when you consider how ridiculous my voice sounds on the demo – ended up making the record – right between picking up the baseball bat and decapitating the fire hydrant,” said the indie crooner.
He continued, “I was mostly kind of in the dark, my involvement with the record kind of ends with me just sending off the demo, it wasn’t until she came to my Coachella set in 2015 and told me personally it had made the record that I really had anything concrete with which to convince my friends that I hadn’t actually gone insane.”
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