Prepare yourselves for Beyoncé‘s new takeover. Today (June 20), the R&B icon unveils “BREAK MY SOUL,” which serves as the lead single from her forthcoming seventh studio LP RENAISSANCE. The dance-ready track sees production from Tricky Stewart, The-Dream, and Beyoncé herself, and begins with a sampling of Big Freedia’s “Explode.”
Earlier this month, speculation of a new album from Beyoncé began after all of her profile pictures were removed from her social media accounts. Last week, those same accounts — and her official website — made an official announcement, along with a confirmation that RENAISSANCE would be making landfall July 29.
As previously reported by REVOLT, Beyoncé revealed to Harper’s Bazaar that RENAISSANCE took a year and a half to create:
“Sometimes it takes a year for me to personally search through thousands of sounds to find just the right kick or snare. One chorus can have up to 200 stacked harmonies. Still, there’s nothing like the amount of love, passion, and healing that I feel in the recording studio.”
From a solo standpoint, RENAISSANCE will follow 2016’s Lemonade, which contained 12 songs and additional features from Jack White, The Weeknd, James Blake, and Kendrick Lamar. The project received both critical and commercial acclaim, landing Beyoncé her sixth straight number one on the Billboard 200 thanks to 653,000 album equivalent units sold during its first week of release.
A couple of years after Lemonade, Beyoncé and JAY-Z joined forces for the joint effort Everything Is Love, which boasted collaborations alongside Cool & Dre, Boi-1da, Pharrell Williams, Quavo, Offset, and Ty Dolla Sign, and more. Following that, Beyoncé would liberate The Lion King: The Gift, a companion piece to the remake of The Lion King. That compilation was filled to the brim with contributions from the likes of Burna Boy, Childish Gambino, Tierra Whack, Moonchild Sanelly, and (her daughter) Blue Ivy.
Turn up with Beyoncé’s “BREAK MY SOUL” below.