With a title like “America Has a Problem,” the 14th track off Beyoncé’s album “Renaissance” is bound to address some heavy sociopolitical stuff, right? Color us shocked when a few seconds into the song’s militant drumbeat, Queen Bey starts singing about (and only about) how she wants to get down. (“Pray your love is deep for me / I’ma make you go weak for me / Make you wait a whole week for me” is just a sampling of the first verse per Genius.) On the song’s blunt refrain (sporting lines like “I know you see these rack-rack-racks on me / Now come and get hi-i-i-i-i-igh”), Beyoncé even raps in a Dua Lipa-esque fashion.
“Renaissance,” as Beyoncé’s June Instagram post told fans, was an opportunity for her to inspire fans to “release the wiggle … and to feel as unique, strong, and sexy as you are.” No song on “Renaissance” embodies this more than “America Has a Problem.”
And despite Beyoncé’s seemingly subversive message, her song’s title comes from Kilo Ali’s 1990 track, “Cocaine (America Has a Problem),” which addressed a pressing sociopolitical issue at the time. No drug references in Beyoncé’s work, but perhaps the apolitical lyrics are her own protest against an all-too-political world? Is she telling the rest of us to lighten up, get in the moment, and feel ourselves?
Nicki
