How Beyonce pissed off Rihanna, Keyshia Cole, & the industry with her "BOW DOWN" song

[Music] impressive [Music] hello everybody welcome to the impressive channel in this video i wanted to briefly revisit the drama surrounding beyonce's bow down record that she released in 2013. now we all know that beyonce is a household name in the entertainment industry she is one of the biggest touring acts of all time and also she has solidified herself as a music icon and a living legend due to her longevity and her impact but there was a point in beyonce's career where she didn't always receive her flowers and it got to a point where she had to say bow down beast put some respect on my legacy and of course when she said this this raised a lot of controversy and some of beyonce's peers in the industry weren't feeling it at all and i'm definitely going to talk about that but before i do i want to talk about what led up to beyonce releasing her infamous record bow down i've been on now before beyonce released bow down i've been on she had been in the game for about 15 years which was pretty impressive because a lot of artists don't get a chance to be relevant for that long but at that point beyonce was consistently on top of her game she went from being in a multi-platinum selling girl group called destiny's child to being a solo superstar her first album dangerously in love sold 11 million copies worldwide her album b day sold 8 million worldwide and her album i am sasha fierce also sold 8 million copies worldwide she had multiple platinum selling hits she completed several sold out world tours and when she wasn't doing music she was also starring in several different movies including movies like cadillac records austin powers and gold member obsessed and the oscar-winning film dream girls to simply put it beyonce was on top of her game and she had the resume the stats and the accolades to prove it but there was a point where beyonce's reign got a little shaky after her successful i am sasha fierce era she did take a six month break in 2010 but after her break she had to go back in the industry and deal with the pressure of keeping up with the success of her previous albums also beyonce had to deal with some very stiff competition around this time artists like adele taylor swift katy perry lady gaga and rihanna were killing the charts rihanna in particular was dominating in several different lanes she not only was dominating in the pop lane but she was also dominating in the r b lane as well she appealed to both the mainstream and the urban demographic and more than likely beyonce probably felt the pressure to keep up with rihanna since rihanna and beyonce were the only black female pop stars thriving at the time they were pitted against each other a lot and beyonce had to deal with those unnecessary comparisons not only that she had to deal with the way music was changing there was a pretty obvious shift in music at this time where euro pop and dance music became super dominant and also hip hop and trap music started to become more mainstream beyonce did attempt to follow the pop and dance trend when she released songs like telephone with lady gaga and her song run the world but that wasn't the direction that she wanted to stay in when beyonce released her 4th album 4 it had somewhat of a mixed reception there were a lot of people who enjoyed it and appreciated it but there were a lot of people who slept on it and the album did not perform as well as her previous albums the singles that she released for the album didn't chart as well also the album didn't follow the music that was trendy at the time it had more of a mix of old-school 70s and 80s sounds along with some up-tempo pop songs and some contemporary r b songs and ballads as great as her songs were it didn't reach people the same way because her music wasn't trendy enough also another thing to mention is 4 was leaked before it actually was released and this also affected its rollout four ended up being her lowest selling album at that point only selling 1.3 million records within the first three years of its release for any other artist that would have been a great number but for beyonce the number was kind of underwhelming and some felt like it was a flop now from a personal opinion the four era was amazing the songs were great and her performances were excellent but commercially it didn't live up to beyonce's typical standard and people did start to question whether or not beyonce's reign was slowly fading away beyonce not only had to deal with the criticism of her album's performance but she also had to deal with some pretty major changes in her personal life first she fired her father matthew knowles as her manager matthew had been managing beyonce since she was a child and he helps guide her into super stardom but according to some rumors she fired him because he was taking money from her and because their business relationship was affecting their personal relationship beyonce also went through another major change in her personal life when she got pregnant with her first child unfortunately her pregnancy was plagued with a lot of ugly rumors a lot of people were saying that beyonce had a fake baby bump because her loosely fitted dress folded during her australian interview also some people said that beyonce got pregnant to save her career and her marriage the baby is helping beyonce's sagging recording career it is sagging i mean the statistics show but you forget all about that because you're so focused on oh beyonce's preg number two beyonce his pregnancy is a way of keeping jay-z's alleged mistress away ciao there was a lot of controversy and rumors surrounding beyonce's pregnancy but the controversy didn't stop there in 2013 she faced some criticism for lip syncing in the national anthem at president obama's inauguration ceremony but beyonce soon redeemed herself when she performed that same year at the 2013 super bowl beyonce's performance at the super bowl was a major feat for her she was the top trending name that night and not only that her electrifying super bowl performance shut down any conversation that she was falling off her throne she solidified herself as the queen bee and some even called her the king bee but either way she was raining and her reign wasn't gonna let up beyonce was filling herself in a major way and rightfully so at that point she had overcome a lot in the industry she dealt with a lot of negative rumors throughout her career and she had to deal with people counting her out all because she was getting older and because she was married with a child there were some people who felt like she wasn't as appealing or relatable to the younger audience anymore and there were some other people who felt like some of her peers surpassed her but beyonce had to come out and remind people of who she was and why nobody could replace her after performing at the super bowl beyonce released a teaser single called bow down i been on to promote her world tour the miss carter show this song really shook up the industry for one it was a lot different from anything beyonce had ever recorded the most boasting that beyonce has ever done in her music was in her song diva but people weren't expecting her to drop a trap sounding trill record telling people to bow down in the original song bow down i've been on she said 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 bees i took some time to live my life but don't think i'm just his little wife don't get it twisted get it twisted this my ish bow down bees bow down also in the song she said you could see me stunt when you turn on your screen i'm bigger than life my name in the lights i'm the number one chick ain't need no hype the capital b means i'm bout that life i've been on i've been on i've been on tell me who gonna take me off so beyonce was sending a very clear message in this song she was letting people know that the throne ain't for the taken she wears the crown and all her haters and her competitors need to bow down now this song was controversial for several reasons for one people felt like beyonce was exalting herself and she wanted people to praise her like she was a god and a lot of people did not like that also a lot of women were turned off by the song because they felt like it went against the women's empowerment messages that beyonce promoted in her music to hear bow down b over and over from the woman who preaches empowering women is a bit unsettling to some i just feel like it's kind of it's hard to swallow just very hard to swallow haven't seen her in a different light for so long i don't like it i don't think it's her i don't think it goes to what she represents i love beyonce but i honestly think that jay-z's putting thoughts in her head you're on a pepsi can for goodness sakes to tell v-words to bow down and then you're saying girls run the world jendy g says she preaches about women empowerment but then turns around and calls them b words and and demands them to bow down beyonce is such a hypocrite beyonce's song not only offended some women but it confused some of her peers in the industry the singer nicole scherzinger from the pussycat dolls revealed in her interview with capital fm i don't know what to make of it quite yet i'm probably beyonce's biggest fan i love bee i think she's queen bee for sure nobody can touch her but i don't know i'm hoping some great music will come out she never disappoints i'm just not used to this the singer brandy also wasn't exactly a fan of the song either i know that you are a beyonce fan i am your beyonce fan and she recently put out her new song um bow down people are talking about it opinion is opinion i think art should be expressed the way it the way it should do you love the song um i don't love the song uh but i love beyonce i have to be honest you know while some artists didn't necessarily care for the song the singer keisha cole was the only one who boldly spoke out against it she said first women need to stick together now bees better bow shake my head it's all g chicks stay shooting the ish can't stand when people all self-righteous when it's convenient it makes them look good lmao but can talk the ish when convenient too f out of here now when keisha tweeted this she received tons of backlash from beyonce's fan base the beehive and also she received some backlash in the industry in fact the producer the dream said that he wouldn't work with keisha after she spoke against beyonce would you have a record you go right now because of what happened i can't i think she will respect why i can't like that's my family like you can't you disrespected the queen we're not messing with you keisha you're two seconds away from being blackballed sorry click damn another artist who allegedly didn't care for the bow down record was rihanna a lot of people speculated that beyonce was even throwing subliminals at rihanna in the song now even though b and rhee were cordial in public they knew that they were being pitted against each other and they were well aware that there was a little bit of competition between them so when beyonce dropped her song bow down rihanna didn't hesitate to throw subs herself she posted an article that named her the most influential pop star in the uk and said in her caption i only know how to be number one i could use a challenge how'd that feel down there on your knees huh she also posted another article that crowned her the queen of the pop powerless playlist of 2013. she said in her caption it's only march people hashtag 2013 is already owned hashtag stay tuned hashtag money over bees that was allegedly rihanna's response to beyonce's bow down record we'll never know exactly who beyonce was talking about when she wrote the record but we do know that beyonce was triggered to write it because she was tired of all the hate she was getting and she was also tired of people claiming that she fell off the reason i put out bow down is because i woke up i went into the studio i had a chant in my head it was aggressive it was angry it wasn't the beyonce that wakes up every morning it was the beyonce that was angry it was the beyonce that felt the need to defend herself and if this song never comes out okay i said it and i listened to it after i finished and i said this is hot imma put it out i'm not gonna sell it i'm gonna just put it out people like it great they don't they don't and i won't do it every day because that's not who i am but i feel strong and anyone that says oh that is disrespectful just imagine the person that hates you imagine a person that doesn't believe in you and look in the mirror and say bow down and i guarantee you you feel gangsta so listen to that song from that point of view again if you didn't like it before so as you can hear beyonce said she wrote the song because she was angry she was tired of the hate and she wanted to express herself in a way that would shock people and people weren't really used to beyonce singing and talking like a rapper but they didn't realize that beyonce was on the verge of reinventing herself musically at that point beyonce was tired of making commercial sounding music she was tired of having this perfect image and she was tired of being put into a box all because she was a wife and a mother she wanted to be edgier she wanted to be sexier she wanted to show another side to herself she saw how it worked for her group member kelly rowland she also saw how it works for her other peers in the industry and she too wanted to break free from her image and do something different i felt like i had been so commercially successful it wasn't enough it's something really stressful about having to keep up with that and something really crippling you can't express yourself i don't want to have to sing about the same thing for 10 more years you can't grow i want to be able to sing about how much i hate myself that day if that's how i feel and i felt like it was time for me to set up my future so i set a goal and my goal was independence beyonce wanted to reinvent herself and she wanted a change in her overall direction bow down would be the precursor to her beyonce era and it would usher in a whole new beyonce in december 2013 beyonce released her surprise visual album which broke the internet and also broke records the album outsold her previous album 4 within 4 weeks alone and it also extended beyonce's musical relevancy she was not only known for being the pop diva who made poppin r b hits but she was also known for shifting the culture bow down may have been controversial at the time but in hindsight it was a necessary record that helped beyonce reinvent herself and connect with a whole new generation of music listeners anyway tell what you all think about this video down below please like comment and subscribe and share this video if you care thank you so much for watching and i'll see you next time bye [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Empressive

Views: 1,028,429

Keywords: beyonce, bow down, rihanna, keyshia cole, interview, live, flawless, brandy, nicole scherzinger, 4 album, run the world, formation, adele, lemonade, i been on

Id: vZTBrswwxNY

Length: 17min 36sec (1056 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 29 2021