Beyoncé’s new movie Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé is out and with it, came a new song, “My House,” which appears in the credits. “My House” finds Beyoncé in “full rap mogul” mode, barking aggressive, boastful rhymes asserting her dominance. While it’s a bit of a departure from many of the dance-centric cuts that appear on her latest album Renaissance, it’s not the first time Beyoncé has shown off some impressive rap skills in addition to her always awesome singing abilities.
Here are 10 more of Beyoncé’s best rapping songs.
“No, No, No Part 2” With Destiny’s Child (1998)
While there are some who wouldn’t consider Beyoncé’s early work with Destiny’s Child to exemplify traditional rap structure, Beyoncé’s playful blending of R&B vocals with hip-hop delivery could be seen even then. It also turned out to be prescient; these days, the line between rap and R&B is blurrier than ever thanks to artists like Drake and those he’s inspired. Just look at SZA’s “Kill Bill” and “Snooze” — without Beyoncé, who’s to say there’d have been space for that style to flourish on the charts the way it has this year?
“Temptation” With Destiny’s Child (1999)
Although “Say My Name” is often considered the moment when Beyoncé perfected her rap-like, staccato singing style, another song from the same album, The Writing’s On The Wall, features a much more direct rapping delivery. hip-hop history has a proud tradition of storytelling tracks running through it, and with a bit of contextualization, “Temptations” fits right in.
“If Looks Could Kill You’d Be Dead”
Okay, go with me here. In 2001, MTV launched a made-for-TV film called Carmen: A Hip Hopera. It is exactly what it sounds like: a rap-ified version of the 1875 opera Carmen (or at least of Carmen Jones a 1954 musical loosely based on it). As the titular character, Beyoncé has two jobs: Looking gorgeous enough to prompt half the male cast to try to kill each other (check), and keep up with Mos Def, which she does admirably on her introductory number.
“Diva” (2008)
In 2008, producer Bangladesh had two of the biggest bangers of the year: “A Milli” by Lil Wayne and “Diva” by Beyoncé. While they employ a similar production style, the two performers used completely different rap approaches. Rather than using one to discount the other, the correct way to read this is acknowledging
just how versatile rap can be at its best.
“Partition” (2013)
On this standout from Beyoncé’s self-titled album, she leans fully into a swaggy rapper persona — the one she’ll end up using right to today. Her signature Houston drawl elongates the rhymes, harkening back to one of her home state’s most iconic bar-spitters, Pimp C.
“7/11” (2014)
“But she’s just repeating the same words over and over!” you may protest.
Ahem… No one questioned this when Lil Uzi Vert did it on “Do What I Want” (sure, some folks hated it but no one tried to take the rapper title away from him). If you think about it this way, Beyoncé kind of opened the door for Playboi Cart. He should send her a note.
“Feeling Myself” Nicki Minaj Feat. Beyoncé (2014)
On one of the first songs where Beyoncé went bar-for-bar with an actual rap peer, she not only kept up with Ms. Minaj — she darn near stole the whole show.
“Top Off” DJ Khaled Feat. Jay-Z, Future & Beyoncé (2018)
Beyoncé had collaborated with her husband Jay-Z a number of times in the prior decade but on DJ Khaled’s Father Of Asahd, for the first time, she endeavored to actually out-rap him. Whether or not she accomplished that mission is up to the listener’s taste but it wouldn’t be too hard to argue that that’s exactly what she did.
“Apesh*t” As The Carters With Jay-Z(2018)
Apparently, Bey and Jay had so much fun trading bars on “Top Off,” they decided to do it for a whole project on their group album Everything Is Love as The Carters. Once again, she arguably gets the best of him on the lead single, rattling off some of the most memorable punchlines on track.
“Savage (Remix)” With Megan Thee Stallion (2020)
In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Beyoncé almost single-handedly gave fans the blueprint for survival, making OnlyFans a household name in the process.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.