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Shownotes Transcript
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My lady quarterbacks and tight ends. Touchdown. I like that. Touchdown. I'm Sam Sanders. I'm Saeed Jones. And I'm Zach Stafford. And you're listening to Vibe Check, a very special Super Bowl edition. Vibe Check.
What a night. What a night. We're here. We're here. On a Sunday night, together. Listen, and this is a tradition now because loyal listeners will know that last year, after Rihanna's halftime show performance, we recapped that show on Vibe Check on the night of the game, and we're back at it again for our main man, Ursa Raymond. Ursa Raymond. Can we just say that? Shout out to Atlanta. Can we just acknowledge that?
What a night. What a show. Purr. S-I-E text. Purr. And I got to say, you know, no judgment, but, you know, we live in facts. I feel this is not about the performers. Okay. Okay. Go there.
This Super Bowl, I think, has given us a lot more. Like, a lot more has happened tonight. Like, I feel like last year, it was just Rihanna. And then Jalen Hurts is a very beautiful man. And tonight, it felt like my phone was firing on all cylinders. Yeah. No, I think you're so right. And even Sam and I were watching the game. I said the show.
The show. The big game. The big show. And I joked with him at the beginning of Usher. I said, I missed the simplicity of Rihanna's staging last year. But I think that kind of texture of last year, to your point, was the whole thing in itself. It was very simple. It was very to the point. There weren't very big moments where this year, similar to Usher's performance, was dilapidated.
was dynamic. There's a lot going on. And this just thing felt like excess. Like, Usher had a big show with a lot of moving parts. Taylor and Travis are the two biggest stars in the music and sports world collectively. This whole thing just felt big.
So I want us to get into all of this. We have so much to talk about. I kind of want to set up how this episode is going to go. So first, we're going to recap this halftime show because it was good and we have thoughts. And then I want to take a few minutes to just chat a little bit about how...
the whole Super Bowl phenomenon felt this year because the three of us have been texting between the Usher nostalgia and the Travis and Taylor homecoming king and queen of it all. It's felt like very high school centric. It's felt like a high school homecoming game. And I have thoughts about that. And
And to your point about nostalgia, of course, right before we start recording tonight, Beyoncé decides to, in fact, fulfill her promise to break the internet with new music. And so we just took a moment to listen to the first couple of songs, and they're both about nostalgia. 16 Carriages is about her turning 16 years old and all of that. And then Texas Hold'em is a more upbeat song about
being in Texas and going to the dive bars. So it feels like even as Beyonce, in a way, kind of swept in in the second half of the night after Usher, her songs, her interpretation of country is very much about nostalgia. We'll go to all of this, but that's the flow of the show. And listeners, of course, before we get into this episode, as always, I want to thank all of you for checking out this show. You can listen to more Vibe Check every week online
on Amazon Music. And you can also catch some of your other Stitcher faves there as well. And of course, big shout out to all of you who send us fan mail and write into the show and reach out on social media. We love hearing from you. We read all
the emails, all of them. So keep them coming. Vibecheckatstitcher.com And if you're in New York and happen to be walking through Times Square, look up! Because that's the three of us in the cheap seats on a billboard in Times Square. Yep, above an American Eagle. Alright, with that, let's get into the Usher of it all, shall we? I love how you say Usher. Can you say it one more time? Usher. There's an R in there. There's a second R in there. Thank you. U-R-S-H-E-R. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Y'all have watched it by now. You've enjoyed it by now. I want to just have us give our review of Usher's halftime show. To start, though, I want to recap his set list. I'm going to do that real quick, and then we're going to just break it down. All right?
Usher began with some snippets of my way before he officially launched the halftime show with caught up, which was very Vegas coded. Then he did. You don't have to call. Then after saying God answers prayer, look at me. I'm here. He did superstar and the whole stadium lit up with all the flashing lights. He followed that with love in this club. Then Alicia key showed up with a big old red piano and this magnificent giant red piano.
Was that her dress or a cape? I think it was dress cape train. She sung a bit of If I Ain't Got You with Usher. Then the two of them sang my boo and they snuggled and I almost cried. And Swiss Beats almost ran to the stage, I'm sure, to beat Usher. Yes. And then a man I thought was CeeLo came out to introduce Confessions. It was Jermaine Dupri. Yes.
I'll be honest. Okay, I thought it was just me. Okay, I thought it was CeeLo. I thought it was CeeLo. And then it was like, no, surprise, it's Jermaine Dupri in boy shorts. Yeah. Janet, I'm sure, was at home and had a good laugh at that. Yes. Then we got two Jermaine Dupri-produced tracks.
Nice and slow And burned And I think also You Got It Bad Was Jermaine Dupri as well During You Got It Bad Usher took his shirt off And then her came out For that guitar solo We lived We lived
I was watching the game with my neighbors and shocker. It was all gay men. And the way we fully just started school girls. Talk about nostalgia, school girl, teeny boppers, tiger beats screaming. When he took off his shirt, it was a moment. My auntie chakra has been activated. Yeah.
Tapped into that auntie third eye. The auntie third eye was viewing. The auntie third eye. After Bad Girl and her on stage during Bad Girl, Usher went into Oh My God. And again, I said, oh, is CeeLo back? And no, it was Will.i.am.
You sure did think it was CeeLo back. He did. Listeners, he really thought CeeLo had come back. You know, these are producers that are not in the public eye as much anymore. And I was like, oh, that's who that is. Okay, cool, cool, cool. And for me, this is when it really took off. Like between Oh My God with Will.i.am and then Lil Jon just popping up in the crowd. Did you turn down for what? The energy. That's when it was like, oh, we're in the club now.
I loved it too because it felt like the stadium was fully shaking in that moment. I was like, it's about to fall apart. Oh, yeah. It was beautiful. Little John in the crowd taking me back to a sweaty dance floor. And then after that, we got Usher doing the song we all waited for.
Yeah. With Ludacris, with Lil Jon. And then a magnificent Afro. So there was a snippet of Get Low thrown in as well. Luda's Afro was popping and he closed the show. The music stopped and all of his friends are on that stage like they're in the club just doing A-Town, A-Town, A-Town, literally shaking the stage. So that's the show. First thoughts. All thoughts. Go.
Okay, my first quick thought, Saeed, I think has lots of amazing things to say, but I just want to set the record straight for everyone. Usher did live in Atlanta. He did a lot for Atlanta music, but he is from Chattanooga, Tennessee. And I'm from Tennessee, and I just need people to know that. Oh, I thought you were trying to correct the record. Wow. I saw him do the piece up A-Town down there, and I was like, girl, you're from Chattanooga choo-choo land. Like, come on, man.
So anyway. That is the most petty southern quibble. I love it. I was like, bro, you just threw Tennessee out with the bathwater. So anyway, Saeed Jones, take it away. Oh, I loved it. I mean, to begin to kind of draw on our theme of nostalgia, I have two vivid memories from high school when I think of Usher. One was...
junior, senior year when I could finally drive. I used to love driving down the country back roads by myself where I could speed as fast as I want. There's even a scene about this in the memoir. And I would love screaming the lyrics to Yeah while I was driving. Oh my gosh,
The Texas girls, Sam and Saeed, have had quite a night, thanks to Usher and Beyonce, by the way. And then another memory is my high school graduation when we were literally walking out at the UNT stadium and all the Black students, we just started singing This Is My Confessions. Yes.
I don't remember why. I mean, it was the number one song. It was the number one song on the radio. I don't know why, but I think one kid started singing it as a joke. And the next thing you know, and this kind of gets to like monoculture and like some things that maybe we miss about that era where my school was very diverse. 2000 students, white, black, Latino, everything. Everyone knew the words. And so we all literally start and they had to like make us stop singing.
And paused because we refused to finish the song. And they were like, we are not letting you walk out in front of your parents and aunties and grandmas. I love it. So it was a good night. I just, I smiled so much. And he was, it's not just nostalgia holding up his performance. He is a performer, honey. Oh, yeah. Yes. Zach, what's your review? So much what Saeed said, you know, I feel very similar. I thought it was outstanding. Yeah.
I loved Alicia Keys. I feel bad that she didn't hit that note right out the gate because of course it happened. Literally, I was like two words in. Can I tell y'all? Can I tell y'all? That is the story of Alicia Keys. It's always Alicia, please. I'm telling you, she has been pitchy from the start and we still love her. This girl's been on fire all the time.
- Ah, auntie ever since. - I know, I know. But beyond all of that, something special happened as I was, me and Sam were recording in the same building and we were trying to figure out logistics. And I looked at my phone and my sister was texting me who I'm very close with and she loves Usher. And she wrote me something to the effect of, "When Usher took off his shirt, I lost my breath.
oh my God, all this stuff. And what was so special to me about that was when Usher originally came out, we were kids. I lusted after him, but I couldn't talk about it and I couldn't share it with people. And I just thought how special this is. I get to like thirst with my sister and talk about him in this way. And we as a country are doing it.
So it was just a really fun moment to be taken back to high school, but I'm no longer stuck to the confines of that high school anymore. And he was definitely a very early crush. I remember the cover of his debut single. The way that just hearing him say at 7 o'clock on the dot...
fully takes you to Preteen Crush. Wow. There was a clock on the stage at 7 p.m. when he began singing. I'm going to offer y'all my quick review. So my first thought was just like, look at this guy's catalog. So the party that Zach and I have been at to watch the game is
All of us there at the party made bets onto what songs he would sing. All of us picked different songs and all of them were bangers and all of them would have been amazing in that halftime show. He has so many hits, right? So that's for starters, right? The second thing I realized, it's like Usher's halftime show kind of showed what I love
least and most about halftime shows in general. You know, the first half of his halftime show was him cramming in a lot of songs.
Like 30 seconds of this song, then move on. 30 seconds of this song, then move on. I actually hate when they do that. I don't like it. But the last half, the songs breathe. And by the end, we end up getting most of yeah. Like most of it. With Ludacris' rap and everything. That's when it shined the most. I really wish that halftime performers would move towards a situation in which the 13 minutes or 15 minutes were for their best three or four songs and not like 12th.
That's a fair point. And I think a friend even told me that they added, I think, a couple of minutes to the halftime performance. Still felt breathless, though. You're right. Yeah, it felt breathless. And when it really opened up and when it's like Luda and Lil
Lil Jon and Usher and they're just giving yeah it's full do that's when it really felt alive and that's when it felt like Usher was doing like his victory lap by the end when he's just on the stage rocking up and down with his crew making the Atlanta sign with his hands you're like this guy is happy and he's enjoying the fact that 30 years in he gets this I felt so happy for him you know like what a ice on the cake I agree with your point overall but the only thing I'm going to push back on him because we the three of us haven't mentioned
haven't mentioned it yet just because she said victory lap excuse me this man roller skated in the middle of the Super Bowl while singing and dancing and it was incredible so he had a victory lap before the actual victory lap
And people who have been following Usher for the last few years, the skating on that stage tonight was taken directly from his Vegas residency, which has become one of the most successful in Vegas history. I wanted to go this past year. Nosebleeds were $900. $900? No. Yes, for nosebleeds. It's over now. Apparently, he's going to do a tour and then come back to Vegas. Rightfully so. But
But in general, I loved the back half more than the first half. That first half when he came out, when it was just him like on the grass, I was like, Usher, you're just on the grass? Where is Nick Cannon? Is this Drumline movie? Like, what are we doing? What I will say about the opening of him on the grass was that he was for people who haven't watched yet or seen clips. It was like Vegas circus performers. I like that.
I like that it looked different and felt different, much like with Rihanna on the platforms last year. I think in addition to the time crunch and the montage mash that, Sam, you're talking about, another issue I have with halftime performances is that they all visually look the same. It's that big stage with a bunch of people around it. So I like that at least at the beginning, visually, I mean, there were circus performers flying around. It felt different.
And I like that it also felt specific to Vegas and his residency. Yeah. You know, as much as I loved all the Usher songs and his dancing and his chest and his singing and his performance, if I'm comparing the halftime shows that the three of us have reviewed, which is Rihanna and Usher, I think aesthetically the one that stands the test of time is Rihanna's. I think it is cleanly.
cleaner, simpler, and more memorable. You know, I will actually forget the busyness of the lounge performers around Usher at the top of that show. It was busy. And the beauty of Rihanna's halftime shows, it was never busy. It was always clean. It was clean. And I can remember specifically what it looked like. And I'll never forget that. You know? So that, for me...
made it. But listen, I love Rihanna. I love Usher. I love it all. Zach, do you agree? This is controversial. I do agree. I love the Rihanna halftime show. I thought it was a spectacle. I thought it was designed really well. I think the direction was incredible. I think everything about it was just like, it took the halftime show to a new level and
What Usher did is he gave us traditional halftime show, but at the highest caliber. Like it was the best version. If you're going to give us nostalgic music, that's super popular, that's super mainstream, that everyone can dance to, everyone has a memory to, he gave you all of it.
times 10. And I love that for him. So I'm going to always hold this one near and dear, but in terms of like, wow, shock factor, Rihanna still holds that cake for me. I'm going to give it to Usher. I'm going to give it to Usher. I mean, I just, I keep, you know, I know Apple has sponsored both Super Bowls, but in some ways, like the Apple sleek aesthetic of everything last year compared to this year, I don't know. It just felt, and maybe it's just where I was at. Yeah.
It was mostly black gay men. But it just felt, hers was beautiful. It was a masterpiece. But there was also a sense of distance. And with Usher, I was like, he's for us. He is for us. And it's like, shout out to Chattanooga. But I was like, when he was invoking Atlanta in the A, I felt it. I don't know. There was something organic that felt special. Yeah.
This is the thing about Usher. I was going through his songs today before the game. There are several of his songs that have the word club in the name, more than one. And a lot of his lyrics talk about the club or meeting someone at the club or going to the club after heartbreak. That man has always made club music and black club music and strip club music. And by the end of the halftime show, you felt like you're in the club with Usher. You felt like you're in the club with Usher. And I love that.
But what Rihanna gave me was like this simple beauty that is seared into my brain. It was beautiful. I keep seeing that little, that like, that long plank she's dancing. I keep seeing those Teletubby dancers. I keep seeing them. Also, I think like Usher falls victim to the thing that all or most halftime shows fall victim to. It's like, how many people can we fit on this field? Let's see. And Rihanna was like, 10 of us. That's it. That's it. 10 of us. Yeah. You know? Okay. I'll say this.
Visually and aesthetically, Rihanna. Musically, Usher still has more hits. Okay.
And I agree with that. And then my final note on this before we throw it a break is I think Usher out of any Super Bowl halftime show I've seen in years had a better sense of place in his production and knew the audience he was making for and what type of music should echo through because it felt like this was an extension of the clubs of Vegas and everything around like that. Everything was synchronized together. It's kind of like Rihanna finishes and you go, wow.
That was incredible. Oh, and she's pregnant, right? Because that was the big thing. Usher, and you're right, particularly because it's in Vegas and he obviously knows the city very well at this point. I was like, I know the people in that city want to run into the streets. And go get wasted and dance. Yeah, totally. Anywho, all this to say, I think all three of us are giving him close to 10s across the board. Our review is, Usher, we love you, baby. We love you. Peace up, A-Town down. Yes. Okay.
All right. Time for a break. After the break, we'll talk about everybody else that was a part of this big game. Stay tuned. We'll be right back.
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All right, listeners, we're back and we are going to talk about everything else in the Super Bowl. And something that came to light in our group chat before the game even began was this big aha moment, as Oprah would say, that we had. And I'm going to let Sam Sanders take the lead on this. But the big thesis or theory or hypothesis we have is that this Super Bowl more than ever felt like high school all over again. Sam Sanders, what do you mean by that?
So, you know, I started the day on a long five mile hike with the dog Wesley and a friend and I was playing Usher songs up to the hike and back home. And I was like, oh, this I remember where I was in high school when this song came out, where I was in college when this song came out. It was it's very much high school coded for me. And I was like, you know, when you look at it, Taylor and Travis are giving us homecoming king and queen energy today.
Usher is giving us high school nostalgia. Or flashbacks, depending on your... Yeah, flashbacks, right? But like, this is not the Super Bowl. It's the homecoming game. I couldn't shake that. And I was texting y'all about it, and we all were kind of like, yeah, there's a certain kind of nostalgia in this entire run-up to the game and the game itself. And I think I quipped at some point, I texted y'all and I said, most Americans and all straight people have actually never left high school. Yeah.
I mean, it's only pity that our big game takes us there. Yeah. Did y'all feel the same energy? Yeah. I mean, there's a lot there. I mean, one thing I would say to your last point is there is a certain type of person for whom maybe high school is their social peak.
And then everything else is built around that. And I think that's certainly one aspect of nostalgia that was being tapped into tonight. Yeah, for sure. For sure. You know, and I continue to marvel at the ways in which we keep grasping for monoculture even as monoculture leaves us. Like our internet era is more fragmented than ever, but the Super Bowl abides.
And Usher, who's been making hits for 30 years, brings the country together. And Travis and Taylor perform quintessential archetypal stereotypical homecoming in Queen. It's like even as monoculture leaves us writ large.
when it pops its head up, it's still big and pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. And it also, I think tonight, and you know, we're recording this and the game is in overtime, so something drastic could happen, so don't hold our feet to the fire if something happens after this. But so far, I will say that tonight has been a hug that America really needed in a really important time. We're in a very divisive...
Political year, you know, culture is falling, not falling apart, but it's all over the place. TikTok can't even hold music anymore. Like where do we even find things? But yet this game that we all grew up with has given us new music. It's given us a romance. It's given us some interesting ads. It's given us Usher again. So I just think there's something really beautiful about when we do come together and sit and watch something and consume something together. And I'll talk about it, that something good can happen. Yeah. Yeah.
And the alt-right, the right wing, they were doing weeks of coverage of Taylor in the run-up to this game, being like, she's a liberal plant. She's going to endorse Biden. The game has gone off pretty apolitically. Pretty apolitically, right? So even those that wanted it couldn't get it. But I do want to put this moment of NFL energy in context. If we're in a very homecoming game moment for the NFL and the Super Bowl, I compare it to other moments of –
cultural focus on the NFL where we could have made the NFL help us have some more serious conversations and didn't. I remember several years ago when we all were talking about traumatic brain injury and how NFL players have their brains damaged by this game. There was that Will Smith movie concussion. There was talk about changing the rules and the helmets and then nothing happened. Right. And then there was a Colin Kaepernick moment where he's taken a knee and it's like, all right, the NFL is finally going to talk about race and
And then in actuality, nothing really happened. And what I get from all of this, when I look at the brain injury moment, the Kaepernick race moment, and this nostalgia homecoming moment, most of us want the NFL to give us the happy, feel-good stuff and not the heavy stuff. And that remains a truth.
Yeah, I mean, I have to be honest, I have surprisingly complicated feelings about the Super Bowl. I've enjoyed it more than I thought. I mean, one is, you know, the CTE conversation, which I don't think has totally ended, but I think you're right, Sam, it is no longer center stage.
And certainly, you know, they successfully blacklisted Colin Kaepernick for his, you know, the conversations he was trying to encourage about race and police brutality. And all the black performers who boycotted the NFL came back. Good point. And the reason the NFL as a corporation had to kill those movements is that, to me...
They're essentially labor issues, right? Like part of what Colin was also pointing to was race in the NFL. It wasn't just about police. It was about black head coaches, for example, the treatment of black players. And certainly CTE is like a health issue for these players. And I think the NFL was aware, oh, if we let this go on for too long,
They're actually going to start connecting dots, and we make too much money to allow that to happen. In contrast, nostalgia reifies power because it's a return. And I think a flex...
is that even though we know Super Bowl ads every year make so much money, cost so much, that's not new. I think it's like $7 million for 30 seconds. It was striking this year that it literally felt like the NFL was flexing that it's a Big Ten because the commercials did not just have
a celebrity in a commercial. There were so many eight to 13 celebrities. I was like, how did they get all these people? Yeah, it was a lot. It was a message what they're communicating through their PR strategy actually is aligned with the way they have sadly used Taylor and Travis's relationship. Everyone can come here. The Swifties can come here. Tina Fey can be here. Michael, let's all just come. Usher is here. Everybody's here.
The whole vibe is no one has to sit beneath the bleachers. Come on in the game for real. Yeah, yeah. And I would say that now looking back...
on Taylor and Travis's romance, which I would say is not the biggest story out of tonight. Like, this is not the thing that we're all thinking about, talking about. Exactly. Even the camera didn't even go to her. But it was a hint of what was to come in terms of, like, the NFL flexing its cultural power, saying, we can control all conversations around the world when we need to and want to. And tonight has been a show of that through every apparatus they could possibly
And it's been pretty amazing. I agree. And I think then to kind of transition to the other major news event that happened tonight, Beyonce, it's actually really interesting. And I think...
The three of us are going to have a whole other conversation about Beyonce and Jay-Z's relationship to professional football. I mean, it's kind of fascinating, this ongoing decade-long saga that Beyonce's had. Let's flashback just real quick. After Kaepernick became a trending topic for taking a knee, Jay-Z was like, I'll boycott the NFL with you. And you know who came back to the halftime show just a few years later? Fast forward two or three years.
Jay-Z was back up in it. And now Beyonce is launching new music at the Super Bowl. Right. So in case you didn't hear overnight or when you're listening this morning, Usher was incredible, and I think we've made that very clear. But it was also really striking on what was supposed to be Taylor and Travis' night. It was like, actually, this is Usher's night. And then maybe what was supposed to be Usher's night, I think by the morning will emerge as Beyonce's night because she had a Verizon wireless commercial with
homeboy from Tony Hale. What's his name? I can never remember his name. I like him. He's very funny. I just can't remember his name. But the whole gist was her trying to break the internet and she's doing all kinds of stunts, all kinds of stunts and nothing's working. And then at the very end, she says, okay, fine. Drop the new music. And about 30 minutes later via title, which Sam, Zach and I were frantically trying to like, do we have a subscription? Damn this app and its issues. I just signed up paying $14 a month for this. She's
got us right where she wants us. I tell you what, she better do videos this time, too. She better do videos this time, too. All this money I'm paying her. Good God. Well, we've only listened a bit, but I just get the gist of the two songs. There are two singles out now. Oh, and I should say, Act 2, the second album in this trilogy, I believe she says comes out on March 29th. So the two singles she's released ahead of it are 16 Carriages, which I listened to a couple of times. That's the song I was saying is like...
Nostalgia, I think presumably it's about her family. She says, like, I saw my mama crying, daddy lying, grinding. I think this look back at turning 16 and coming of age and the difficult choices coming of age brings with it. And then Texas Hold'em, which is right now my personal favorite, is an up-tempo kind of pop country song. Certainly that's much more like, let's go to the dive bar and let's have fun. And the one thing I wanted to say about it, and Sam, I wonder if you noticed this too when you listened, is
As someone who grew up in Texas, I love that she says at one point, all the problems, it just feels dramatic. And she's talked about floods, tornadoes, wildfires, all the things that when you're growing up in Texas, we're all like, yeah, our problems are bigger here too. It was, I liked seeing her nod to that in a fun way. But what did y'all think about this? Yeah.
So it's funny. It's funny. You said that you love Texas Hold'em because I'm not there yet. You're not sold. I'm not so there. And the reason why is because I think Texas Hold'em will be the break my soul of act two. Break my soul came out and I was like, this is like kind of kids bop house music for me. This isn't like the deep house sound that I thought we're going to get. It's very pop music. And that song is very pop country, which is great to release for rating. Great.
However, 16 Carriages, baby, I'm buying the tickets to the tour tomorrow. That song is beautiful. And if that's what the album and the record is going to sound like, and if that's how she's conceptualizing country through her lens...
She's a genius. I love it. I love it. Give her the Grammy now. And I love also my other note to this. She's releasing this album in a year. Now it will compete in the next year's Grammys. She will be going up against Kacey Musgraves, who's already won Album of the Year for her album. Taylor Swift, who began as a country star, will be competing again. And now Beyonce's bringing her country album to the Grammys. So I just think it's a very exciting year for her.
And because we can't forget about Usher, he did in fact release an album, a new album, last week. I saw that and it was like holding a peach on the album cover and I was like, oh, I know. We love you, uncle. We love you, uncle. One thing I wanted to point out about 16 Carriages is given Tracy Chapman's beautiful performance of Fast Car with Luke Combs, which I think is
understandably doing well all over again because of their Grammys performance. Sixteen Carriages kind of thematically has some interesting parallels. Like she says at one point, sixteen carriages driving away and I'm watching them while they take my dreams with them or something to that sense. And I was like, oh, it's like
I mean, obviously, Beyonce, in addition to being a great performer, singer, producer, she's also, I think, very smart about culture. And so it's been interesting, obviously, seeing the success of a Black woman in culture and country music like Tracy Chapman, understandably get her flowers. And Beyonce is also clearly picking up on that thread as well. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, I also love that, like, lyrically, she's not just doing country sounds. She's doing country lyrics. Say more about that. That's interesting. Well, just hearing you talk about, you know, Tracy Chapman and Fast Car and then this song, 16 Carriages, Driving Away. So much of country lyrics about leaving. Leaving with your lover for a better situation or leaving a bad situation and leaving your lover. And so, like, half of all country songs are about when I decided to leave and how I did it.
And so for Beyonce to have a song like 16 Carriages where the lyrics are really all about her leaving home at 15 to go be a star. That's what it's about. I'm like, oh, she's turned her life and career into actual country songs. She could have made, you know, a typical Beyonce song just with like a steel guitar in it. She didn't. She went full country and went thematically country. So I appreciate that.
I do want to offer my review of the two songs. I'm going to go with 16 Carriages first because I feel the best about that one. Zach and I noticed as we were playing on Tidal, it was co-written and co-produced with Rafael Sadiq, who is a big friend of the Nose family. Yes, people who know know that he helped Solange make Cranes in the Sky. And the baseline in that song is Rafael Sadiq.
I think he makes beautiful music. And I think this is the one of the two songs. 16 Carriages is the one. When that chorus comes in and there's like a wall of guitar, I can already see the live performances of it. This is like this song. I already think of it as like stadium country.
There are moments that this song is going to just wallop you in a live performance. It's stadium country, and I can't wait to see her treatment of it live. That's the good news. I'm going to tell you the bad news about Texas Hold'em. Something's going to have to happen for me to like it. I will stand for Texas Hold'em. Okay. It feels, and I'm going to say this with love, and maybe my opinion changes after a few more listens, but the first two listens I gave it, it felt a little trite.
Can I say that? And I'm going to tell you why. I'm going to read some of these lyrics to you. And I'll be damned if I can't slow dance with you. Come pour some sugar on me, honey, too. It's a real life boogie and a real life hoedown. Don't be a bitch. Come take it to the floor now. Okay, wait. I got my life with don't be a bitch. Come take it to the floor. I mean, I will say. It just felt a little cheesy. It's a little cheesy. Yeah, it's...
It is. It is. It is. But I like it. Like, this is no shade because I don't know, it feels where my mind is at. Like, I was literally thinking of specific dive bars on Guadalupe in Austin that I would go to and drink out of mason jars with friends. I think it's like...
The ease of it, the comfort amidst all the calamity, flooded basements and tornadoes and wildfires that she's kind of referencing worked for me because I was like, oh, it's that kind of, it's a dive bar. It's not, you know, but we're going to go and we'll see what they have on the jukebox. And kind of like what we were saying with monoculture, like,
And why I was saying I'm surprised by my complicated thoughts about the Super Bowl. I really enjoyed getting texts from my auntie tonight about commercials. I really enjoyed, like, my friend Darren's, like, mom, who's an old black lady in Ohio, texting him about, like, okay, I think Taylor Swift will be able to make it to the Super Bowl. Like, there is, like, a richness in maybe the easy saccharine.
Very safe. Okay, but I'll say this. I am able to accept easy saccharine Beyonce lyrics when the hook is there. I remember, what was that song from Self Titled? Come and get the cherry, pop it for the flavor. So cheesy, but it was a hook. Blow. Blow. Blow. The lyrics to Blow are cheesy, but it felt hooky. This doesn't feel as hooky. And I didn't feel that the song got an actual hook.
until the whistle part the whistle was the hook that's fair so i mean listen i will never cast dispersions on beyonce but i will say i feel like 16 carriages is it and if i get an album of that energy i'm gonna love it if i get a whole album of texas hold'em energy we got to talk some more okay that's fair that's fair i'm glad she gave me the pop moment
But again, part of the work, and this is where Beyonce is playing at a different level than other artists, is it's not just about the music. She is trying to demonstrate that she can have a hit and thrive in a way.
hostile music industry if we want to think about like your conversation with Tressie McMillan Cotton about like country and so I think yeah she's like part of the strategy is we're going to do the pop more accessible mainstream play first yeah I want to have y'all give some kind of prediction on where this country album goes based on conversations we've had
So I did an episode of Intuit all about the racist history of country music with Tressie McMillan-McCottam, the academic and luminary. And for those who don't know, before country was called country, southern music was pretty much fully integrated. And American roots music was like an exchange between black and white culture. When record labels began to want to sell the music, they made country officially white.
And they sent all the black parts of that music to literally the black charts. So it became officially segregated. And it's the last major American musical form to remain pretty much segregated. And so knowing that history, I think a lot about Angelica Jade Bastion's critique of the Beyonce Renaissance film in which she claims that Beyonce gestures towards activism but is never an activist.
And so I wonder if in her country moment, she will speak about this racialized history of country. I wonder if she will push for racial justice in country music. I wonder if she just becomes outspoken on that history at all or if she just gives us great country bops. I think I'll like her anyway, but I'd love her even more if she stuck her neck out a little bit on that stuff. Do you think she'll go there?
Well, I will say, and I mean, you two were smart enough to look up the credits for the song on Tidal. I didn't even think to do that for the two singles. But I'm interested to see who she works with in that regard. Is she working with Black legends in country who have been overlooked? Is she working with emerging Black? Who are the producers? Who are the musicians that she kind of brings into? And how she nods to these other people, I think, in the realm of
of renaissance for example you know i think she found different ways to not to just music i mean to queer icons icons yeah yeah but also but also diana ross donna summer tina turner you know so i'm interested to see what
the country version of that acknowledgement would look like. Yeah. I think it's going to be a nod. I don't think she's going to be outright being really explicit, being really confrontational. However, I do think Beyonce definitely believes in the feminist mantra, the personalist political. And I think she sees herself as,
charting as a revolutionary act. I'll see her, if she shows support with like Britney Spencer or Warren Treaty or these other black country artists that are emerging right now, I'm sure she's gonna like nod to them. That will be radical. I think the bar is so low in country music right now that like she is going to create some ruckus and all that. And I'm excited to see. So she doesn't do much. She's just got a chart and it's gonna be bananas for them. There you go. Well, and like this is the thing to watch.
Country radio is a monopoly. It is a cabal. And they only play who they want to play, and they only play folks who are in that tribe. There's going to be a fight over country radio, whether they play her or not. And it's going to be one to watch. I think, Zach, your point about the bar being low is what's going to be really interesting.
and Angelica obviously wrote so insightfully about this, but the political burdens raised by drawing from ballroom culture, from disco and everything. And I, you know, I generally satisfied with how Beyonce rose to that occasion with country. I mean, like I said before, like it is so openly hostile.
It is so openly hostile. Still, to this day. Yeah, even just the response to Daddy Lessons, her country song on Lemonade. So, like, does she even get invited to the CMA Awards is a valid question. So I don't know if we're even going to be able to have a conversation about Beyoncé's
agency so much as wow look at how they're even treating Beyonce I wonder if that's what's ultimately going to be the convo well I cannot wait to see how it all comes together we have over a month before the album drops and you know we're going to be watching and with that
We got to wrap. We got to send Chantel home. She's out here editing this episode. What a night. I've got to go pack. I'm going to New Orleans tomorrow. We have a game to finish. Oh, you are. Saeed, have fun. Oh, my God. I want you to play Daddy Lessons on Frenchman Street. Blair.
Please do. But I'll be listening to Texas Hold'em on my AirPods just for me. Just for me. Just for you, baby. I'll be playing 16 carriages in the backyard with the fire pit going. Okay? I'm ready for it. All right. Well, listeners, as always, let us know your thoughts on this iconic halftime show, your review of the performance, Beyonce's new songs, and whatever else she got on your mind. You can reach us, as always, at vibecheckatstitcher.com. And with that, that's the show.
Thank you for tuning in to this very special episode of Vibe Check. If you love the show and want to support us, please make sure to follow us on your favorite podcast listening platform. And most importantly, tell a friend or two. Huge thank you to our producer Chantel Holder, engineer Sam Kiefer, and Marcus Hom for our theme music and sound design. Also, special thanks to our executive producers, Nora Ritchie at Stitcher and Brandon Sharp from Agenda Management and Production.
And listeners, we want to hear from you. If you want to rip me a new one because I said I didn't like Texas Hold'em, email us, baby. Vibecheck at Stitcher.com. Vibecheck at Stitcher.com. Blue Ivy is going to be in your inbox.
Also stay in touch on Instagram at Zach Staff, at Sam Sanders, and at The Ferocity. Use the hashtag VibeCheckPod if you post about us. We're going to go back to our usual schedule this week. So stay tuned for another episode on Wednesday. Till then, good job, Usher. We love you, baby. Great job. Bye, Usher. Good job, Usher. Stitcher.
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