Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign now has a theme song.

Beyoncé’s 2016 hit “Freedom” is the soundtrack to Harris’ bid to become the first female president of the United States. However, it’s not the first time “Freedom” has been used as the cornerstone of a political movement.

“Freedom” is taken from Beyoncé’s sixth studio album Lemonade. Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is famous for a meticulously crafted image so when she dropped an album detailing her husband Jay-Z’s infidelity, the singer created a seismic culture shift, turning her plight into a civil rights anthem.

Formation       

“Freedom” uses a sample from the 1960s to create a spiritual and political song about liberation. A timeless organ riff from a defining decade for civil rights also speaks to the unfinished work that inspires artists to continue writing protest songs. The theme: keep on marching.

Tryna rain, tryna rain on the thunder

Tell the storm

I’m newI’m a wall, come and march on the regular

Painting white flags blueLord forgive me, I’ve been running

Running blind in truthI’ma rain, I’ma rain on this bitter love

Tell the sweet I’m new

good kid, m.A.A.d city

Beyoncé summons generations of voices to preach a women’s gospel before Kendrick Lamar enters to rap about the systemic racism Black men experience. “Freedom” illustrates the struggle and offers hope over psych-organ and hip-hop beats.

Ten Hail Marys, I meditate for practice

Channel 9 news tell me I’m movin’ backwards

Eight blocks left, death is around the corner

Seven misleadin’ statements ’bout my persona

Six headlights wavin’ in my directionFive-o askin’ me what’s in my possession

Yeah I keep runnin’, jump in the aqueducts

Fire hydrants and hazardousSmoke alarms on the back of us

But Mama don’t cry for me, ride for meTry for me, live for me

“Let Me Try”

“Freedom” sampled “Let Me Try” by Kaleidoscope, a ’60s British psychedelic group. Producer Just Blaze said Beyoncé approached him with a completed demo of “Freedom” using the Kaleidoscope sample.

Two additional samples appear: “Collection speech; Unidentified lining hymn” and “Stewball.” Alan Lomax recorded the speech in 1959, performed by R. C. Crenshaw. Lomax and his father John Lomax recorded the prison song “Stewball,” attributed to Prisoner 22, in 1947 at Parchman Farm (Mississippi State Penitentiary).

The generational themes of “Freedom” preview Beyoncé’s latest albums Renaissance and Cowboy Carter; acts I and II of a trilogy celebrating Black cultural pioneers.

Presidential Campaign Song

Vice President Harris used “Freedom” to kick off her presidential campaign following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race. If elected, Harris would become the country’s first Black and South Asian female president.

Political campaigns have a long history of using popular songs to enthuse voters. Yet “Freedom” seems tailor-made for this particular moment. Academic scholar and author Omise’eke Tinsley explained to the Associated Press the politics of “Freedom.”

“She [Beyoncé] performed it at Coachella; it segued into ‘Lift Every Voice,’ the Black national anthem,” Tinsley said. Activists used the song during the 2016 presidential election, and as Tinsley further explained, “In 2020, it was taken up by activists again. In the wake of the George Floyd 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ing. It’s a song of hope. It’s a song of uplift.”

Beyoncé permitted Harris to use “Freedom” and the vice president’s team created her first official campaign video based on Harris’ July 22 speech at campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware.

Know Your Meme

Still, Beyoncé isn’t the only pop star in Harris’ orbit. Charli XCX’s “brat summer” memes involving Harris continue to trend online—often involving coconut trees. The meme references a turn of phrase Harris’s mother used to explain how people live in the context of what came before. (“You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”)

KHive, the vice president’s online fandom, has created a deluge of lime-green video clips. They feature Harris speaking the phrase over remixed pop songs.

According to the online encyclopedia Know Your Meme, MSNBC’s Joy-Ann Reid coined the name KHive, alluding to Beyoncé’s fan base, BeyHive.

‘Lemonade’

Eight years after “Freedom” appeared during a Super Bowl commercial, the song remains a modern civil rights hymn.

When Lemonade arrived, Beyoncé placed her marital woes in a cinematic context of race and generation. But the voyeuristic pop project has transcended the personal narrative of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s marriage. It has been embraced by people looking for a chorus of hope.

The track does what timeless anthems do: it offers a rallying cry.

Freedom, freedom

I can’t move

Freedom, cut me loose