Beyoncé's 12 most shocking lyrics you may have missed in 'Renaissance'

Song: "Alien Superstar"

The third track of "Renaissance" is when Beyoncé starts to get pretty randy. This line in particular seems to reference her own 2009 single "Ego," which uses the title as a double entendre for a penis.

Interestingly, it also seems like a reference to Maya Angelou's famous feminist poem "Still I Rise" ("Does my sexiness upset you? / Does it come as a surprise / That I dance like I've got diamonds / At the meeting of my thighs?").

Song: "Cuff It"

When Beyoncé casually throws out the phrases "sex erotic" and "hella thotty" on track four, you know the album will be a wild ride.

Song: "Energy"

A derringer is a small, easy-to-conceal handgun. A "Karen" is a colloquial term for a problematic white woman, typically one who wields her white privilege to marginalize — or even terrorize — other people and communities.

Song: "Church Girl"

Leave it to Beyoncé to rap a play on the phrase "big ol' titties" over a sampled gospel song by the Clark Sisters.

Song: "Church Girl"

As if this line wasn't devastating enough, Beyoncé decided to repeat it twice in a row.

This might be a cheeky reference to "Family Feud," Beyoncé's 2017 collaboration with her husband Jay-Z, on which he raps, "Ain't no such thing as an ugly billionaire, I'm cute."

It's also an interpolation of the 1992 track "Where They At" by DJ Jimi, who's credited as a cowriter on "Church Girl" ("It must be the pussy 'cause it ain't your face").

Song: "Plastic On the Sofa"

In the middle of "Plastic On the Sofa," the closest thing that "Renaissance" has to a love song, Beyoncé can't help but slip in a casual dig about her partner's coolness. Long live the queen.

Song: "Virgo's Groove"

The longest song on "Renaissance" is also one of the most graphic. "Virgo's Groove" delights in specific sexual acts like "motorboating", celebrating the physical pleasures of intimacy (or, as Beyoncé puts it, "nudity and ecstasy").

Song: "Virgo's Groove"

There's no two ways about it. This lyric is filthy.

Song: "Heated"

In a rare moment of venom, Beyoncé seems to reference the betrayal detailed on her previous album.

Her refusal to be tamed, played, or complacent strongly recalls both "Don't Hurt Yourself" and "Sorry," the third and fourth tracks from "Lemonade" — blistering kiss-off anthems that address a cheating husband.

Song: "Heated"

It's always a thrill when Beyoncé goes into full-on flex mode, and "Heated" boasts her best take-down of tabloids and critics since the opening lines of "Formation" ("Y'all haters corny with that Illuminati mess / Paparazzi, catch my fly, and my cocky fresh.")

This lyric also contains a brazen nod to growth and motherhood, conflating stretch marks with power, much like the earlier track "Cozy" ("Kiss my scars because I love what they made").

Song: "Pure/Honey"

Even though "cunty" and "hunty" are both words commonly deployed in drag, ballroom, and queer house music ("Pure/Honey" samples Kevin Aviance's "Cunty" and Moi Renee's "Miss Honey"), it's still felt like a small electric shock the first time I heard Beyoncé use them.

Song: "Summer Renaissance"

Beyoncé closes the album with a disco-house track that flips gender roles from the very first line: "I wanna house you and make you take my name."

In the pre-chorus, Beyoncé promises to get her lover "walking with a limp," subverting a common phrase that assumes a woman's submissive role during sex.