Beyoncé Cowriter Says “Love Drought” Is a Diss Song to Beyoncé’s Label

Many have speculated that Beyoncé’s Lemonade is a factual account of her relationship with her husband Jay Z. “Love Drought,” in particular, seems likely to be about their marriage. In May, cowriter and producer Mike Dean said the song “didn’t change from the day [they] recorded it. It’s been the same for a couple years.” Now, Ingrid Burley (the song’s other cowriter, along with Beyoncé herself) has revealed in an interview with Genius the actual inspiration behind “Love Drought,” which she said Beyoncé doesn’t even know. According to Burley, the Lemonade track was actually a diss to Beyoncé’s label, Parkwood Entertainment.

Writing began two years ago when Burley was new to the label. She said that she “was very frustrated with the label” because “two of the people who were running the label at the time lied to [her] and told [her] that Beyoncé wasn’t currently listening to any new music.” Later, at a writing camp, an A&R person told Burley that Beyoncé was, in fact, listening to new music. So when Burley went back to her room to write, she “couldn’t get out of her head the fact that they just lied to [her].” From there, she came up with the first line, “10 times out of nine, I know you lying.” She goes through more lyrics and says that others (like “you and me could calm a war down”) are actual about her personal relationship with music. Burley concludes, “Getting that feedback read back to me, I could’ve just reacted then and said, ‘man, she just told me!’ you know? But it was, like, I had to internalize that and the only way I could really get over it was kinda, like, hehe, she’s gonna sing this song I wrote about her label one day!” Watch Ingrid Burley’s full explanation below.

Read “The Beyoncé Lemonade Merch of Our Dreams, Realized” on the Pitch.

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