Beyoncé's 'American Requiem' slams haters who say it's not 'country enough'

Beyoncé is officially in her country season — and she doesn't care what you think about it.

The superstar opened her newly released album Cowboy Carter on Friday (March 29) with “Ameriican Requiem,” a half-word statement of her intentions with the country-tinged project. “Look there, look at my hand / The grandfather of a moonbird / Gadsden, Alabama / Got people in Galveston, rooted in Louisiana / He used to say I talked, 'Too country' / And the rejection came, he said 'I wasn't 't country 'nough,' he sings in bits on the second verse. “I said you wouldn't saddle up, but / If this ain't country, tell me what is? / I planted my bare feet on solid ground for years / They don't, I don't know how hard I had to fight for it / When I sang my song.'

The lyrics are ostensibly in response to the criticism the Texas native has faced when trying to break into country music throughout her career, especially after the release of “Daddy Lessons” from her 2016 album Lemonade. Half a year later, he performed it at the 2016 Country Music Association Awards with The Chicks. A pre-show announcement teasing her performance sparked calls for a CMA boycott on social media, with some people criticizing the awards for including Bey, whose tribute to the Black Panther Party during her performance at ” Formation” at the 2016 Super Bowl had also earned pushback.

“This album has been over five years in the making,” Bey wrote on Instagram earlier this month. “It was born out of an experience I had years ago where I didn't feel welcome…and it was very clear that I wasn't. But because of this experience, I took a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich music archive. It's great to see how music can unite so many people around the world, while amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives to educating our musical history.”

He continued, “The criticism I faced when I first got into this genre forced me to push past the limitations that were placed on me. Act II is a result of challenging myself and my time to bend and combine the genres together to create this work.'