Dangerously In Love

Reviewed by:
Bill Crandall

Remember those “I don’t need no man” songs Beyoncé used to sing when she was with Destiny’s Child? Well, apparently she just hadn’t met the right Jigga. Her aptly titled solo debut, Dangerously In Love, celebrates sweet, bootylicious lovemaking (“I know you want my body/Tonight I’ll be your naughty girl”), with rumored boyfriend and official luckiest-man-on-Earth Jay-Z rapping along. The couple’s obvious heat fuels the thumpin’ dance track “Crazy In Love” and the smooth ballad “That’s How You Like It.” Elsewhere, the wah-wah guitars, funky bass, and scratchy record noises—not to mention two Shuggie Otis reinterpretations!—prove that her role as Foxxy Cleopatra in the last Austin Powers flick rubbed off nicely. Things take a turn for the strange, though, when she tries to cram all 12 zodiac characters into the chorus of “Signs” and when she professes on a hidden bonus track that she wants her husband (?) and her “unborn son” (??) to be like her daddy (???). Say it ain’t so! But the writing’s definitely on the wall: Beyoncé is now firmly in control of her own destiny, child.

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