The Jon Batiste and Beyoncé collaboration is one for the history books.
Jon Batiste took to Instagram Saturday, March 30 to celebrate Beyoncé’s buzzy Cowboy Carter release and talk about his own contributions to the project. Jon Batiste isn’t the first New Orleans artist to collaborate with Beyoncé (Big Freedia appeared on the superstar’s first single from the Renaissance album titled “You Won’t Break My Soul.”)
In his post, Batiste praised Beyoncé for “dismant[ling] the genre machine.” As many fans of the pop singer multi-hyphenate already know, Beyoncé premiered her 27-track country album on Friday, March 29 and made music history by releasing “Texas Hold ‘Em,” a breakthrough that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. In his lengthy post, Batiste shared his original lyrical visions for the song and praised the singer for “making the lyrics her own.” He gushed, “Quincy Jones told me, as he also wrote in his forward to my WE ARE album, ‘it’s up to you to de categorize 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.”
