The Hollywood profile has seen higher days. Usually it is little greater than a written industrial for an A-lister or rising star’s private model. However typically, as with the brand new Beyoncé profile in GQ journal, all pretense is dropped. The one method to get a worldwide famous person like Bey now’s by way of a chance to promote a brand new product to a specified audience, on this case males between the ages of 30-45 who is perhaps desirous about her new whiskey model.
Whereas some may categorize this as “shameless” and even “unethical,” the possibility to nab a Beyoncé cowl is just too attractive for the present iteration of GQ to go on, even when it means agreeing to conduct the interview not in particular person, and even on Zoom, however over e-mail. To learn this Q&A is to surprise who or what even constitutes the Beyoncé on the opposite aspect of the pc. Lots of her responses might kindly be known as wood, or extra precisely described as affectless, PR-officiated, post-human babble that at instances feels indistinguishable from ChatGPT. For instance, listed here are GQ‘s query in daring after which the reply from “Beyoncé”:
This spring, you launched a brand new album. And I’ve lots of questions on that and the way it connects to your previous work. However first I wish to begin with the new, new factor. Whiskey. I suppose I’m questioning…why liquor?
I’ll always remember the primary day I had whiskey. It spoke to me good. I bear in mind considering, Why have I by no means had this earlier than? It was sturdy and heat, simply the correct amount of problem. I cherished the method, the ritual of it. Whiskey isn’t one thing you simply shoot down. It’s a dedication. You gotta have endurance. I like that. Then I bought into classic Japanese whiskey and began doing tastings. It opened up an entire new world. I really like every part about whiskey. The colour, the odor, the best way it dances within the glass.… And I really like the tales that include it. Each bottle has a historical past. I additionally like introducing whiskey to individuals who don’t know they adore it but. I feel much more ladies would adore it in the event that they tasted it, and in the event that they had been actually spoken to by the whiskey world.
That is acquainted stuff to anybody who’s needed to learn one million press releases for celebrity-sponsored model partnerships: numerous phrases linked in idea-shaped sentences which typically imply one thing, however typically imply nothing. “I’ll always remember the primary day I had whiskey. It spoke to me good.” I do not know what which means, nevertheless it sounds provocative. There’s loads of this type of copywriterly ad-speak all through:
What has your expertise been like, as a Black lady, in enterprise areas that some may need assumed you wouldn’t thrive in?
There’s an enormous distinction between the enterprise journeys of women and men. Males typically have the luxurious of being perceived because the strategists, the brains behind their ventures. They’re given the house to deal with the product, the workforce, the marketing strategy. Ladies, then again, particularly these within the limelight, are regularly pigeonholed into being the face of the model or the advertising software. It’s essential to me to proceed to take the identical method I’ve taken with my music and apply my learnings to my companies.
I’m right here to vary that previous narrative. I’m right here to deal with the standard. We took our time, and we did our analysis, and we have now earned respect for our model. I attempt to decide on integrity over shortcuts. I’ve discovered that true success isn’t about leaning on a reputation; it’s about crafting one thing real, one thing that may maintain its personal. It’s not about being good. It’s about being revolutionary.
There’s nothing within the solutions that sound like an actual particular person is responding to something. It is fastidiously curated language to intensify Beyoncé as famous person and company, each sentence heightened to higher promote the product. Even on questions that try to be extra direct, “Beyoncé” dances round it to remain normal and unspecific.
Cowboy Carter was the second album in a deliberate trilogy that you simply began two years in the past with Renaissance. What sparked this grand thought to do a trilogy of data, every exploring totally different genres?
I began Cowboy Carter nearly 5 years in the past. Pay shut consideration to my age within the lyrics of “16 Carriages.”
From the beginning of my profession and on each album, I’ve at all times combined genres. Whether or not it’s R&B, Dance, Nation, Rap, Zydeco, Blues, Opera, Gospel, they’ve all influenced me indirectly. I’ve favourite artists from each style you would take into consideration. I imagine genres are traps that field us in and separate us. I’ve skilled this for 25 years within the music business. Black artists, and different artists of shade, have been creating and mastering a number of genres, since ceaselessly.
It is a testomony to the place we have gotten, each in movie star and media, that the assured success of Beyoncé on the quilt of your journal is extra worthwhile than an in-depth and probing article. In an emailed format, every query roughly serves as a immediate for a semi-related essay. There’s nothing any author might ask Bey that may be new or intriguing, as a result of she will not enable for that. Nevertheless it’s amusing that from GQ‘s perspective, {a magazine} cowl—an honor that celebrities and their handlers used to struggle for—will be devoted to the shilling of a celeb liquor enterprise. Lest you suppose it is all robotic model administration, she did supply some “private tastemaking”:
What’s at present inspiring you in music and movie? What’s the perfect factor you’ve heard in 2024?
I really like and respect all the feminine singers-songwriters who’re out proper now.… Raye, Victoria Monét, Sasha Keable, Chloe x Halle, and Reneé Rapp. I really like Doechii and GloRilla, and I simply heard That Mexican OT, he’s from Houston…. He goes onerous! I actually like “Please Please Please” by Sabrina Carpenter, and I feel that Thee Sacred Souls and Chappell Roan are gifted and attention-grabbing. I’m obsessive about my backseat child…. I’m a Smiler.
However the reality is, I spend most of my time listening to the classics, like Stevie Marvel, Marvin Gaye, and music from artists on the Stax label. I simply watched that documentary. It’s so good! I extremely suggest it. The most effective film I’ve seen this 12 months is Inside Out 2. I feel it’s sensible, and I’m at present watching Home of the Dragon and The Chi.
This feels as real and particular as a Barack Obama summer time studying checklist. Possibly subsequent time, GQ will tell us 10 issues David Zaslav cannot reside with out. No matter helps the underside line.