Jon Batiste applauds Beyoncé for “dismantling genres” on ‘Cowboy Carter’

1 April, 2024

Jon Batiste and Beyoncé

Jon Batiste has praised Beyonce for “dismantling genres” with her new album ‘Cowboy Carter’.

‘Cowboy Carter’ was released on Friday (March 29), her eighth studio album and the second in an expected trilogy that began with 2022’s ‘Renaissance’. Batiste wrote and produced the track ‘Ameriican Requiem’ on the album, which also features guest appearances from country veteran Willie Nelson, as well as Willie Jones, Post Malone, Miley Cyrus, Shaboozey and Tanner Adele.

In a new post on X/Twitter, Batiste lauded Beyoncé’s talents and thanked her for allowing him to be a part of the album, as well as pointing to the way he hopes her music will pave for a more genre-fluid future.

“This is the moment yall, where we dismantle the genre machine,” he said. “I was happy to produce and write for ‘Ameriican Requiem’ along with Beyonce and Dion ‘No ID’ Wilson.

“When I catch inspiration, the words and chords pour out of me. What a honour to then see how brilliantly Beyonce made them her own and THEN further enhanced the lyrical statement, synthesising it into the larger body of work.

He added: “Quincy Jones told me, as he also wrote in his forward to my WE ARE album, ‘it’s up to you to decategorise American music!!’, which is what Duke Ellington told him. I really believe that is our generations role, led by a few artists willing to take this leap.”

“Very grateful for my contribution to your brilliant album, a work of such unimaginable impact and artistic firepower by a once in a generation artist. So glad that we finally got to collaborate with each other at this time.

“Producing and writing for ‘Ameriican Requiem’ was an example of extraordinary alignment—when many leading artists see a similar vision at the same time, that’s when you know a major shift is happening. A new era, long time coming. Let’s liberate ourselves from genre and break the barriers that marginalise who we are and the art that we create.”

Beyoncé was also praised for ‘Cowboy Carter’ by the daughter of June Carter Cash.

“She is an incredibly talented and creative woman who obviously wanted to do this because she likes country music,” said Carlene Carter in a statement. In my book, she’s one of us Carter women and we have always pushed the boundaries by trying whatever music we felt in our hearts and taking spirit-driven risks. Sometimes the country music ‘establishment’ hasn’t been all that welcoming and sometimes this was accepted with open arms. Like Chuck Berry said, “It goes to show you never can tell’.

Nancy Sinatra also heaped praise on Beyoncé for sampling her song ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’ on the track ‘Ya Ya’.

“To have a little piece of one of my records in a Beyonce song is very meaningful to me because I love her,” she wrote on X/Twitter. “She represents what is great about today’s music and I’m delighted to be a tiny part of it. This may be the best sample of “Boots” yet! And the beat goes on…”

However, some Beyoncé fans have complained that their vinyl issues of the new album ‘Cowboy Carter’ are missing five songs from their track listing.

But, as reported by the BBC, the songs ‘Ya Ya’, ‘Spaghetti’, ‘Flamenco’, ‘The Linda Martell Show’ and ‘Oh Louisiana’ are said to be absent from the vinyl copies of the album.

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