Evidence

Analysis of The Gift

The Gift features several Beyoncé-helmed singles that merge the sounds of Afrobeats with African-American genres of rap and R&B, creating a sound that crosses boundaries, features familiar voices in the Western market, and carries messages that uplift these Black communities.

One of the most influential songs to have this effect is “Brown Skin Girl,” which includes Afrobeats legend Wizkid, rapper SAINt JHN, and Beyoncé’s own daughter, Blue Ivy. The song is a light Afrobeats-based song that incorporates a reggae feel, with dominant piano chords and a beat seemingly made from wooden blocks and shakers. As with most of the tracks featuring African artists, they speak a pigeon (mix of an indigenous African language and English; “créole”), bringing the authentic speech of Africans – while Beyoncé croons entirely in English. The lyrics detail the beauty of “brown skin girls,” understood to be dark-skinned Black or Brown women around the world, who often suffer from overt and covert colorism that languishes dark skin as ugly and undesirable.

Here, the artists seek to reclaim that beauty across all Afro-Diasporic cultures, exalting the pearl-like, shining, and glowing skin of dark-skinned women that constitutes and complements them and their story, rather than existing in spite of it. It extends that love to the naturally curvy bodies, tight coils of Afro-textured hair, and dark brown irises of Black women. Beyoncé’s verses name several famous dark-skinned figures, including British model Naomi Campbell, Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’o, and her childhood friend and former bandmate Kelly Rowland. These references sit among intricate background harmonies that form the brightening, lifting chord progressions, illustrating the beauty that the lyrics represent. Thus, much of the cross-cultural impact, reception, and musical elements revolve around the message the song communicates about Blackness.

In the case of “Mood 4 Eva,” the collaboration between Beyoncé and a host of African-American artists, adapts the Afrobeats sound into the familiar trap music of the current American industry. Utilizing an Oumou Sangaré sample and the syncopated groove of Afrobeats, American producers Just Blaze and DJ Khaled seamlessly blend Afrobeats and Hip-Hop. The lyrics employ the classic braggadocio of Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s “rap-singing” technique, referencing great figures of Black wealth from American rappers Biggie and Tupac to ancient African king Mansa Musa. By modernizing classic African singers like Sangaré and juxtaposing them to the contemporary sounds and themes of the American and African industries, Beyoncé’s ensemble weaves a story of Black excellence and success that defines the album and inserts Afrobeats into this narrative.

Interview with Lord Afrixana

Lord Afrixana, an Afrobeats artist born in Ghana and raised in the northern United States, shed light on his experience working on The Gift album and the benefits he believes it brought on his career. “…I think that was a blessing for me was, like, [my] ability to use that name, use that title, use that brand…it’s a resume builder…it also just gave me a confidence boost,” he recognizes (Afrixana 2022). And with a brand like Beyoncé, he knows its worth: “They all call her the Queen for a reason.” Speaking to its effect on the Afrobeats genre as a whole, Afrixana maintains that The Gift “put eyes on it” and “was…an honest referendum on where, like, Afrobeats as a genre has kind of evolved to.” The idea resonates well on The Gift and its catalog: the aforementioned “Brown Skin Girl” is an easy Afrobeats-Reggae mix, “Mood 4 Eva” is a light trap track with African drums and an Oumou Sangaré sample, and Beyoncé’s solos – “Bigger,” “Otherside,” and “Spirit” – all showcase her classical voice technique stacked over orchestral arrangements and traditional African vocals and drums. With those many influences, Afrixana asserts, “…the growth potential of Afrobeats, I think it’s limitless…Afrobeats is only limited by how many genres it can blend itself with.” To him, Afrobeats is a genre with no limitations, something paralleled by other Black arts like Hip-Hop and envied by socially constrained mainstream genres like pop and rock – because it unites Black communities across continents. As such, The Gift is a testament – and a bridge that connects the many parts of the Black people and the art that they create and share in their experience.
A photograph of artist of Lord Afrixana. (UnitedMasters, Lord Afrixana)