Beyoncé shares a collection of her favourite current artists
Despite Beyoncé’s global fame, she has shown on countless occasions that she remains devoted to discovering new, up-and-coming artists. Her taste in contemporary hip-hop covers a wide range, as she proved upon recently speaking about some of her favourite current artists.
A lot of the time, when artists reach a certain level of fame, they begin to dismiss a lot of the new music that is rising through the ranks and focus predominantly on that which surrounds them. However, in a recent interview, Beyoncé showed that this wasn’t the case.
In an email exchange with GQ, Beyoncé confirmed that she was listening to a lot of new music and highlighted some of the artists she was enjoying at the moment. “I love and respect all of the female singer-songwriters who are out right now…” she said, “Raye, Victoria Monét Sasha Keable, Chloe x Halle, and Reneé Rapp.”
Moreover, Knowles then moved on to hip-hop and spoke about some of the current rappers whose work she was immersing herself in. “I love Doechii and GloRilla, and I just heard That Mexican OT, he’s from Houston… He goes hard!”
She said, “I really like ‘Please Please Please’ by Sabrina Carpenter, and I think that Thee Sacred Souls and Chappell Roan are talented and interesting.”
Despite the fact that Beyoncé is clearly involved in the current music scene and likes to keep her finger on the pulse, she also admitted that a lot of her spare time was spent listening to classic R&B. “[L]ike Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and music from artists on the Stax label,” she said.
Also, in the interview, Beyoncé spoke about her most recent album, Cowboy Carter. She specifically shed light on the title, as after receiving many comments about why it was called Cowboy Carter rather than Cowgirl Carter, she spoke about the history of the word Cowboy and how a lot of important people are overlooked in a persistently re-written history.
“I wanted everyone to take a minute to research on the word cowboy,” she said, “History is often told by the victors. And American history? It’s been rewritten endlessly.”
She continued, “Up to a quarter of all cowboys were black. These men faced a world that refused to see them as equal, yet they were the backbone of the cattle industry. The cowboy is a symbol of strength and aspiration in America. The cowboy was named after slaves who handled the cows.”