Queen Bey dropped Renaissance on July 31, 2022, and the music world has forever changed with the vibrant, joyous, and afrofuturistic album.
Despite initial controversies regarding the wording of some songs, fans of Beyoncé have been satisfied with the quality of the songs and the energy put into them.
Unknown to many, the songwriter and producer duo Nova Wave was instrumental, no pun intended, in the album’s development. Two years ago, they were speaking with Beyoncé over pizza about the musical production of Renaissance.
Nova Wav comprises Brittany “Chi” Coney and Denisia “Blue June” Andrews.
Nova Wav produced eight songs for the 16-track record.
They worked on Cuff It, Summer Renaissance, Energy, and Virgo’s Groove. Chi mentioned how writing Virgo’s Groove was an amazing sensation. Funnily enough, they experienced writer’s block during the pre-production of many of the songs. They mentioned going to a strip club to break past writer’s block for Renaissance.
They were elated to have worked with Grace Jones during the song-making process.
Honey was the last song they recorded. They wanted to mix the modern with a retro disco feel, which is a recurring theme in her songs: energetic disco comes together with futuristic chords.
It felt funky. They had to research disco and its beginnings to inspire their writing process.
Beyoncé enjoys working with Nova Wav due to their skill in doing younger voices and making the songs sound mature enough to target married women with children.
Nova Wav mentioned how they were pleased with the final album, telling Beyoncé that she’d own the summer and that they felt proud of her for doing what no one else does without fear.
In 2009, Chi was contacted by Blue June. June told her that she had heard her beats on MySpace and wanted to listen to more of them. She was impressed with June’s incredible sound and worked together for a year, until Blue June moved in with Chi and Chi’s mom to Atlanta, Georgia, in 2011. She quit her job and left everything behind. They’ve worked together ever since, and as a producer songwriter duo, they’ve had great success.
They’ve written and produced tracks and albums for AAA artists, including Ariana Grande, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, and Teyana Taylor. They were signed to Warner Chappell Music by Ryan Press. They were also named billboards 2018 R&B/Hip-Hop 100 Power Players.
They were behind Ariana Grande’s “Best Mistake,” Kehlani’s “CRZY,” and Beyoncé’s “Black Parade,” the most nominated song at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards and Best R&B Performance.
