Beyoncé's surprise Homecoming live album featured a remix of Frankie Beverly & Maze's single "Before I Let Go." The cover became a viral sensation, spawning the #BeforeILetGoChallenge on social media. Billboard recently caught up with Beverly, who feels "bigger than ever" following its release.
Beverly explained his relationship with the singer and how the song came about. "She's a great friend of mine, but I didn't know she was going to do this. I was hearing stuff, but I didn't even want to approach her about it," he said. "She kept it quiet, until her people called me one day maybe a week or two ago. When they played it, that's when I heard the first draft of it, and I was blown away. It's a blessing."
He continued, "She's always been very, very nice to me. This cover was just like she is. She didn't make a big deal out of doing this song, and that's just the way she works. I love the way she does her thing."
While the classic song is often celebrated in the African-American community, it was written during a hard time in Beverly's life. "Boy... It was about a relationship I was in. It was just up and down, and by the end of it I wrote a song because I was feeling I needed to get out of it."
Elaborating further, he said, "When I think back on it, I was really in trouble, but what came out of me was this big, uptempo song that was really a love song. It's funny."
Opening up about how his life has changed in the wake of the cover he said, "I feel bigger than ever! I feel like I have a huge smash out there. It's definitely a blessing. Other people have done my songs, but the way she did this was in a class of its own."
He closed, "I'm hearing from people I haven't heard from in years. She's done something that has affected my life. I haven't even spoken to a publication like yours in quite a while. So it's changed things around for me."
As the song continues to gain traction on social media, Beyoncé shared clips of her fans dancing to the challenge. Check it out below.
