Uzo Emenike, the 21-year-old UK singer and songwriter better known as MNEK, already had an impressive list of credits when he got the call from Beyoncé. He has had a hand in seven UK top 20 singles, including two No. 1s: Duke Dumont's "Need U (100%)," in 2012, and Oliver Heldens' "Gecko (Overdrive)," in 2013. That led to work on Madonna's Rebel Heart and Kylie Minogue's Kiss Me Once, both released in 2014. As a featured artist, he has also contributed vocals for tracks by the likes of Rudimental and Gorgon City. He issued his debut EP as a solo artist, Small Talk, last year, and is perhaps best known to American listeners for his soaring dance-pop anthem "Never Forget You," which features vocalist Zara Larsson and has lately been rising up the U.S. charts.
In March 2015, he shared an idea with Beyoncé that earned him a songwriting credit on "Hold Up," from her new album Lemonade. Pitchfork talked with MNEK about how that happened, his love of female pop singers, and the way Beyoncé's approach to assembling songs recall Xenomania, the UK songwriting and production team behind Girls Aloud and Sugababes.
MNEK's next solo single, "At Night I Think About You," is due out on May 13, and he has plans for festival dates and touring afterward. "Having the opportunity to work with someone like Beyoncé is definitely going to hopefully open a few doors," he says. "I'm honored to be a part of that project."
For more about the making of Lemonade*, read Pitchfork's interviews with "Hold Up" and "Sorry" collaborator Melo-X and "Hold Up" cinematographer Pär Ekberg.*
Pitchfork: When did Beyoncé first get in touch about working together?
MNEK: I met her publisher, "Big" Jon [Platt, CEO of Warner/Chappell Music and a longtime Beyoncé associate]. He was saying, "I love your stuff, I'd love to get you in with Beyoncé." I was like, "Yeah, of course." I met her with him. She played me the chorus of "Hold Up," and she was just like, "Do your thing, do what you got to do." I came up with a few ideas. I came up with the one section, in the middle eight, that's just like [singing] "I-i-i-it's such a shame to let this good love go to waste." I wrote that bit, and she made it amazing.
Pitchfork: What was the process like?
MNEK: I went to her studio, and she played me stuff she was working on. Her process is, she's a writer, but she has an ear for music. And she'll hear what an artist does, she'll hear what a writer does, and she'll interpret it and make it her own, blend it with her vibe.
Pitchfork: Did you even realize at the time that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Soulja Boy, and that old Andy Williams song were part of "Hold Up"? What did you think about how she used those?
MNEK: I thought it was very cool. It works with the tune. I didn't know about the Soulja Boy. That was something that was added on—that was an idea that she had. But yeah, we saw that. And it's great! It works.
Pitchfork: How do you write lyrics that sound like they come personally from Beyoncé, or how do you put your own touch on lyrics that come from her?
MENK: That's the thing about creating. When you create, you create your own thing, whatever that is. It's always going to seep through in whatever you do. For me, I've written and produced for pop singers, but, like, female pop—I love that. I think it's putting me in the game that I love girl pop. All my writing is inspired by it. And I listened to Beyoncé as a kid. So that's always going to be there, and I'm always on board. I like to hear her sing. She gave me this chorus, and I was like, "OK let me try to do some stuff to it and do something around it." She let me do my thing. She was like, "I've got to see you on it—I want to hear what you do." And it was awesome, that someone of her caliber appreciated what I was doing.
Pitchfork: Is there any music that you worked on with Beyoncé that we haven't heard on the album?
(Coy pause) Ummm, there is. Yeah, basically, nothing more to say about that, really. (Laughs)
Pitchfork: So did you sing or play any instruments on the track? Or was your role to come up with that idea that she incorporated?
MNEK: My contribution was simply lyrical and melodic.
Pitchfork: Did you work with any of the other songwriters on the track, like Diplo, Ezra Koenig, MeLo-X, or Father John Misty?
MNEK: The process was more remote than that. That's the thing. The way she works, she is a writer in herself. And then she pieces together stuff and she pieces together, you know, Diplo's going to work on the track; she's going to send it to me to do a melody idea. That's the process. And it worked because she's overlooking everything, saying "I like this, I like that, this is how this should sound, this is how that should sound." It's all coming out of the process.
Pitchfork: Did anything else stand out to you about the making of that song?
MNE: The way she pieced together the song was very similar to that of Xenomania. [Xenomania founder] Brian Higgins taught me the idea of really strengthening what a song is by piecing together things, by having the ear more than just the miracle ability that someone like Beyoncé has. One of my first songs I ever got a decent cut on was with a songwriter out of Xenomania, called "All Fired Up" for the Saturdays. So it comes full circle, but now I'm here, I've got a tune on the Beyoncé album and it's that same process come back again.
