Beyoncé has had all she can stand, and she can’t stands no more, to quote the ubiquitous character Popeye.
Over the weekend, the megastar released her venomous new song, “Bow Down“, which is a sharp departure from her cuts usually offered a more mainstream sentiment.
At the end of the song, a menacing, chopped and screwed voice rambles on bragging that Beyoncé hung with Willie D on the set of an unnamed rap video. That song was “Gangsta Put Me Down” by the Geto Boys, where B is shotgun in the video. “Shout out to Willie D. I was in that Willie D video when I was about 14,” the voice presumed to be B says.
Willie D talked exclusively to AllHipHop about knowing Beyoncé since he was a child and why her new song sounds so virulent.
“I think when you get in the game and you put in the work she put in…and you still getting backlash?” Willie D queried. “You take a year off and mother f**kers think its safe. She’s the queen.”
Willie D says he and Beyoncé share a quality: People feel they know them because they know their music. As a member of the Geto Boys, Willie D was one of the most outspoken, influencers of Hip-Hop culture largely in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Willie also release several solo albums, which yielded a number of hits.
In “Bow Down,” B sings, “I know when you were little girls/You dreamt of being in my world/Don’t forget it, don’t forget it/ Respect that, bow down, b**ches.”
“She’s like f**k it. Let me drop this s**t,” says D.
Bossip.com‘s Janee Bolden, a seasoned journalist and a blogger, thinks the song sends an unnecessary message for a singer of Beyonce’s stature.
“She has millions of little girls who emulate her and the “b######” and cursing throughout the song is uncalled for. There’s already one Rihanna.”
Beyonce, 31, has had her share of detractors, ranging from other singers to random critics. Even whens she was pregnant, some speculated that the pregnancy was fake, making headlines. In the past months the singer has made great strides from performing at the presidential inauguration and the Super Bowl. She’s also gearing up for a world tour called “The Mrs. Carter Show,” a nod her legendary spouse.
The Houston-based Willie D has his own legendary stature in the game as a member of the Geto Boys and as a soloist, but he’s also quietly known Beyonce since she was “9 or 10 years old.” Dee says he used to see her perform and practice with and unusual vigor. “She had the looks, the talent, the drive. I never saw a 10-year old like that,” he told AllHipHop.com.
But now, he says much of the landscape has changed with Beyoncé, who once fronted the pop/R&B group Destiny’s Child. Willie feels that the internet culture as well as the competition has struck a nerve and the talk annoys him as well.
“A lot of it p##### me off. She’s like a sister to me. When I was locked up, I was about to kick a n***a’s ass,” says D. “You get to where any mother f**ker with some fingers can [get on a computer] and call themselves a critic.”
Bolden is one of the critics who isn’t particularly impressed by “Bow Down,” but feels there are deeper implications from the record.
“While I commend Beyoncé for changing things up and repping her Houston roots — I think that ‘Bow Down’ reeks of insecurity,” Bolden said. “Because who can she possibly be addressing than those who are already beneath her anyway?”
Willie D understands the critics, but says they just aren’t close enough to pass judgement, even with a raucous backdrop like “Bow Down.”
“If Beyoncé wasn’t cool people, I couldn’t care less, but she’s cool people,” D tells AllHipHop.com. “She’s always been a real sweet person. Always smart. If anybody wanted to be a diva, it could be her.” He says her critics don’t her her personally, but admits that he never has done any business with the sensation.
“People think they know me. I don’t wake up in the morning saying, ‘What’s up, bald head hoe,” he said, referring to his underground hit “Bald Head Hoes.”
And they don’t know Beyoncé either, he maintained.
“To me, Beyoncé is H-Town (Houston, TX) royalty,” he told AllHipHop.com. “They believe all of what they read and all of what they hear. People attack her character, and they don’t even know who their own mama is.”
“Bow Down” is the first new music Beyoncé has released since giving birth do Blue Ivy, her daughter with husband Jay-Z.
Presently, Willie D is planning a national tour with the rest of the Geto Boys, Scarface and Bushwick Bill.