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Beyoncé’s Lemonade: Father John Misty explains how he ended up on it: 'Can't take credit for "Imma f*ck me up a b*tch" though'

'It wasn't until she came to my Coachella set in 2015 and told me personally it had made the record that I really had anything concrete with which to convince my friends that I hadn't actually gone insane.'

Christopher Hooton
Tuesday 26 April 2016 10:43 BST
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Father John Misty was one of a host of artists to make a surprise appearance on Beyoncé’s new album Lemonade, and today he shared two wonderful stories about how it came about.

The singer has a songwriting credit on ‘Hold Up’, which somehow manages to blend Yeah Yeah Yeah’s ‘Maps’ with Soulja Boy’s ‘Turn My Swag On’.

Misty wrote:

'About a year and half ago, my friend Emile Haynie played Beyonce some of my music, along with some tunes I've written for other people, back when she was looking for collaborators for the record...Pretty soon after they sent along the demo for "Hold Up", which was just like a minute of the sample and the hook. I'm pretty sure they were just looking for lyrics, but I went crazy and recorded a verse melody and refrain too that, unbelievably - when you consider how ridiculous my voice sounds on the demo - ended up making the record - right between picking up the baseball bat and decapitating the fire hydrant.

I was mostly kind of in the dark, my involvement with the record kind of ends with me just sending off the demo, it wasn't until she came to my Coachella set in 2015 and told me personally it had made the record that I really had anything concrete with which to convince my friends that I hadn't actually gone insane.'

Over on Twitter, he told a hilarious story about recording an airhorn the old-fashioned way on the track.

Beyoncé is something of a magpie when it comes to songwriting, and yesterday Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, revealed how he ended up working on the track.

Though still exiled on Tidal and iTunes (no Spotify yet), there has been huge interest in Beyoncé’s album, due in no small part to its lyrics which focus on husband Jay Z’s infidelities.

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