{"id":223525,"date":"2019-07-19T02:12:15","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T06:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=223525"},"modified":"2019-07-19T02:45:05","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T06:45:05","slug":"labrinth-on-working-with-beyonce-shes-a-perfectionist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/19\/labrinth-on-working-with-beyonce-shes-a-perfectionist\/","title":{"rendered":"Labrinth on working with Beyonce: ‘She’s a perfectionist’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Labrinth, who has six Top 10 hits in the United Kingdom and has produced for the Weeknd, Rihanna, Ed Sheeran and Nicki Minaj, said he was impressed with Beyonce’s attention to detail and human spirit when working together. (File photo<\/a>: beyonce\/Instagram<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 British singer-songwriter-producer Labrinth knew what he was in for when he learned he was about to work with Beyonce: \u201cShe’s a perfectionist and she’s a Virgo, like my wife. Virgos are serious perfectionists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, ‘I know what I’m in for and I like that,\u201d’ he added.<\/p>\n

The Grammy-nominated musician, born Timothy McKenzie, worked on the pop icon’s newest song, \u201cSpirit,\u201d from the new \u201cLion King\u201d film, where she voices the character Nala. Labrinth said he and co-writer Ilya Salmanzadeh, who has crafted a number of Top 10 hits for Ariana Grande, were working on tracks for the film and hoped they’d come up with something Beyonce could connect to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of sent a rough demo over to her. She heard the song and she loved the vibe. She was like, ‘OK, I’m going to get in on it with you.’ She started helping us write the rest of the record,\u201d Labrinth said in an interview from London on Wednesday. \u201cIt was just like, ‘This is incredible. It was just one of those moments where it was like, ‘OK, I think God’s blessing me now.\u201d’<\/p>\n

\u201cSpirit\u201d was released last week and appears on two albums: The new \u201cLion King\u201d soundtrack as well as \u201cThe Lion King: The Gift,\u201d a Beyonce-produced album featuring songs inspired by the film. \u201cThe Gift,\u201d out Friday, includes collaborations with Jay-Z, Blue Ivy and Kendrick Lamar, as well as African artists such as Tiwa Savage and Burna Boy.<\/p>\n

Labrinth, who has six Top 10 hits in the United Kingdom and has produced for the Weeknd, Rihanna, Ed Sheeran and Nicki Minaj, said he was impressed with Beyonce’s attention to detail and human spirit when working together.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe cared about everything that was in the record. She cared about what piano we were going to use. Is there enough bass? Not many artists care that much,\u201d he said. \u201cAlso, just the way she treated us as well. A lot of artists in her position, they can be divas and they can be hard to deal with. Her energy and the messages she sent to us in terms of saying thank you for contributing to ‘The Lion King’ \u2014 she sent really beautiful messages. I was really kind of surprised to see that someone in her position still has that humility. For me that’s when I was like, ‘She’s got all the respect from me in the world that I can give.\u201d’<\/p>\n

Labrinth, 30, is probably having his best month ever: He’s also the lead composer on the hit HBO series \u201cEuphoria,\u201d which stars Zendaya and is co-produced by Drake. The show, which follows a group of suburban high school students dealing with sex, drugs, love and social media, has been highlighted for its acting and also its music, which ranges from ’50s crooner Jim Reeves to Beyonce and Lil Wayne.<\/p>\n

Labrinth, who is in the supergroup LSD alongside Sia and Diplo, said he got the gig after show creator Sam Levinson heard his song \u201cAll for Us\u201d and more of his music, and asked him to jump on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing involved with ‘Euphoria’ has given me another outlet to show how deep my world goes. I’m kind of doing orchestral compositions on there as well electric productions, hip-hop, 1960s classic music. It’s allowed me to be a kid in a playground,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Though Drake is part of the show, Labrinth hasn’t gotten a chance to work with the rap star yet: \u201cFunny enough, I did a tour years ago and I supported him around Europe and we spoke then. It was weird that we crossed paths again on a whole different platform (with ‘Euphoria’).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cZendaya’s actually been a good creative to bat ideas with (regarding) the music,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The show has become a family affair, literally, for Labrinth, who grew up in a musical home and has relatives who have worked with gospel icon Kirk Franklin and R&B singer Angie Stone.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family is singing on some of the ‘Euphoria’ records,\u201d Labrinth said. \u201cI love using their voices. They sound amazing together.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 British singer-songwriter-producer Labrinth knew what he was in for when he learned he was about to work …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106,54365],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","category-instagram","mauthors-mesfin-fekadu","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223527,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223525\/revisions\/223527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}