Beyoncé’s “Love Drought” Isn’t Actually About Her Relationship With Jay Z

Co-writer Ingrid Burley revealed to Genius that the Lemonade song is actually about frustrations wi’h Beyoncé's Parkwood label.

June 15, 2016

There has been much speculation about what pieces and lines from Beyoncé's Lemonade album are truly biographical, and, thanks to co-writer Ingrid Burley, we now have some evidence regarding a specific track on the project. Unbeknownst to Beyoncé, Burley - who grew up with the singer in Houston and is also credited on Beyoncé - wrote the song after becoming frustrated with with Beyoncé's Parkwood Entertainment label.

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“Two of the people who were running the label at the time lied to me and told me that Beyoncé wasn’t currently listening to any new music,” Burley told Genius in a new interview. An A&R later told Burley that Beyoncé was listening to new music. Burley channeled her anger into the songwriting process: "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 Burley's full interview above.

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Beyoncé’s “Love Drought” Isn’t Actually About Her Relationship With Jay Z