TS Madison has opened up about collaborating with Beyoncé on her beloved new album Renaissance.
Since 29 July, music enthusiasts worldwide have immersed themselves in Queen Bey’s seventh solo studio album.
Led by the house banger Break My Soul, the record has been praised as one of Beyoncé’s greatest releases to date and has already broken countless records.
Alongside its empowering lyrics and beautiful transitions, Renaissance has also been lauded for its heartfelt homage to the Black queer community.
Throughout the album’s 16-song tracklist, Beyoncé included various samples from LGBTQ+ icons like Moi Renee, Grace Jones, and Big Freedia.
However, one of the most popular samples of the album is from Drag Race guest judge TS Madison – who is featured on the second track, Cozy.
In the Honey Dijon-produced record, snippets from Madison’s iconic Bitch I’m Black video is layered amongst Beyoncé’s alluring vocals.
In a recent interview with Essence, the beloved reality star spilt the tea on how her inspirational video landed on the critically acclaimed album.
“Maybe six months after the video was out, I received an email from a record label. I don’t remember it saying Parkwood,” she explained.
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“But it just said, ‘Madison, this is a powerful piece that you did on YouTube, and we’re interested in sampling fragments of your voice for a record.’ I was like ‘Okay, well how much you got?’ So we figured it out, so I still owned the rights.”
Months after receiving the initial email, Madison began to deduce that the artist she lent the sample to was Queen Bey.
“I finally sat down and read the emails, and Leggra, my manager, went and got the numbers from them, and it was like a number and then zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,” she recalled.
“Then, not only were there all these zeros but it said percent of streaming and a percent of pure sales. I was like, ‘OH, THIS BEYONCÉ!'”
Towards the end of the interview, Madison praised the track for its inclusive message to the Black LGBTQ+ community.
“When you listen to those lyrics, you know she really sat and watched the whole video. So much of the lyrics, so much of the things she’s talking about… if you know anything about my life and story, you know it runs parallel,” she explained.
“My interpretation of it, it speaks specifically of Black trans women. It’s a song about self-determination. There’s a section where’s she’s describing the inclusive Pride flag.”
Here’s to hoping TS Madison will make an appearance in Beyoncé’s upcoming visual for Cozy.