And because “Before I Let Go” gained traction in distinct spaces, it’s become part of a cultural exchange that’s spanned generations, and helped it blossom into something Beverly never could’ve imagined. It’s supplanted Marcia Griffiths’ “Electric Boogie” as the official soundtrack to the Electric Slide. It’s had a place in HBCU culture for years, from band competitions to the most random on-campus parties. Though born from joy and pain, it’s the former people connect with. The song’s musicality - the guitar solos, the light tambourine, the endearing register of Beverly’s voice, the overall upbeat shuffle - belies its bittersweet inspiration, and makes it what it is. “And it got kind of hard because I wasn’t with the woman I wanted to be with, and I couldn’t stay with the one I was with.” “I was seeing some lady but I was just with someone and we broke up,” Beverly t old Essence in 2017. “I gotta make sure I’m right, before I let go,” he asserts. The irony is that the song, a studio track included on the San Francisco-based band’s 1981 album Live in New Orleans, is about love’s unfulfilled potential. It’s synonymous with celebration in the music canon. The cultural associations with Maze & Frankie Beverly’s “Before I Let Go” are pretty uniform at this point.
It’s another lowering of the partition separating the public from someone long charged with being inaccessible. Beyoncé’s interpretation of the song, as an element of Homecoming’s multi-platform experience, is part of her ongoing exaltation of Black culture and how it’s inspired her. Homecoming: The Live Album, released the same day as the film, is an unexpected gift containing another unexpected gift: a cover of Maze & Frankie Beverly’s sublime “Before I Let Go.” Despite the song’s ubiquity within Black culture for nearly 40 years, it’s a deep cultural reference if you know, you know. The unexpected-yet-much appreciated showcase placed Beyoncé eye-to-eye with everyone holding similar experiences and influences - as well as with outsiders who’d never bothered to educate themselves about the culture before. “When I decided to do Coachella, instead of me pulling out my flower crown, it was more important that I brought our culture to Coachella,” she says through voice-over. Featuring them prominently in the film and the event it highlights is another case of the greatest entertainer of her generation making the marginalized feel seen. The entertainment industry may have been her formal education, but Homecoming makes Beyoncé’s influences explicitly clear. Throughout Homecoming, Beyoncé is seen wearing a Howard University crewneck. She reveals that she wanted to attend an HBCU, just as her father, a Fisk University alum, did. She was infatuated with HBCU band culture and sharpened her own budding entertainer skills on Texas Southern University’s campus. At the beginning of the film, Beyoncé explains that she grew up in close proximity to Houston’s Prairie View A&M University. Homecoming’s second performance segment is followed by a montage of bands performing at various Southern HBCUs: Southern University, Jackson State University, Alabama A&M University, Grambling State University, Florida A&M University, North Carolina A&T University, Hampton University, Alabama State University. Her Netflix documentary Homecoming, named for an annual collegiate tradition that, while not exclusive to HBCUs, holds deeper relevance on their campuses within popular culture at large, is another grand-stage ode to the environment, which left a lasting impact without her ever attending. The performance was historic not only because she, to Coachella’s gross oversight, became the first Black woman to headline the festival, but because she used the huge figurative and literal stage to once again exalt Black culture - chiefly, that of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU). Beyonce's 'Homecoming' Film Doubles Down on Her Joyous, Unapologetic Blacknessīeyoncé’s quest continued last year at Coachella.
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