No ID produced the beat for Beyoncé’s Renaissance album cut “Church Girl”—but it wasn’t meant for her.
In a new interview with Stereogum, the famed producer shared a funny story about how Bey got ahold of the instrumental.
“I was at [Jay-Z’s] house one day, and I had some equipment with me, and I just started making a beat,” No. ID explained. “And he was rapping to it, it was for him. And he just put it in the computer, I never thought about it again, I literally forgot about it.
He continued, “And then one day, I just get a call. When you get two to three calls from people in a row, you know it’s something. ‘Hey, do you have this idea? Beyonce got somethin’ to it.’ And Jay jokingly tells me, ‘Man, she stole my beat. She was like, “Remember that idea in the computer that you didn’t finish?”’ And I went to see her, we talked about the record, we listened to her album.”
“Church Girl” is one of the few songs on Renaissance that isn’t anchored by a house beat. No ID explained that while he wanted to do a house song for the album, Beyoncé had something else in mind for him.
“When she was doing a house album, I was like, ‘Aw man, I wanna do some house,’ and she goes, ‘Nah, we got this “Church Girl” record.’ I was a house DJ before I did hip-hop. Actually, the first records I did were house, at like 13 years old,’ the super produced said.
Because “Church Girl” isn’t like the others, it’s become one of Renaissance’s most debated tracks.
“It’s art, it’s there,” No ID added. “Argue, say whatever you want, think what you want. I know people that don’t like it, I know people that love it and swear by it. Usually, when music is divisive that means it’s something new. To each their own, some people like raspberry ice cream too.”
