Hold Up (âRare Demoâ) - Ezra Koenig & Diplo, 2014 (submitted by radiobey)
Ezra elaborates on helping Beyonce write and record Hold Up from Lemonade:
âPeople get really hung up on who wrote what. In some ways I served as like, the middle ground between the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and BeyoncĂ©, but itâs funny to think about â what does writing really mean? Of course Iâm like, proud. I think I wrote a good hook, I think I had a good idea to like, riff on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But now when I listen back to the demo, it sounds different because she contextualized the song. She made this great video where sheâs like, bashing windows and stuff. When I wrote that, it wasnât directed at anybody, I was just songwriting. There are Vampire Weekend songs that have deep meaning to me, that are personal, but that one I was kinda songwriting. Like, âoh, this is a good hook.â I wasnât thinking about anyone in particular, and the idea that those words are now contextualized by this album, that video, by her as a performer and a curatorâI like it! I think it has deeper meaning. Of course I feel some sense of ownership over what I did, but it doesnât feel like my song. She really did bring a different resonance and meaning to it. Itâs a very modern way of a song coming together⊠99% of the world will hear those words and associate them with BeyoncĂ© now.â
