On January 9, 2014, Azealia Banks posted an unofficial remix of the song to her Soundcloud account, featuring Busta Rhymes. Their remix of the song has an extended intro lasting 90 seconds with the rappers singing "dirty" bars.[52] Reviewers were critical of Rhymes' contribution to the remix, with Spin's Marc Hogan calling it "conventionally ****y",[53] and Hayden Manders of Refinery29 suggesting it "take[s] the tease of the original's writing and turn[s] it into sleaze."[54] Banks' effort was contrastingly hailed for "delivering the ratatat wordplay that brought her to acclaim while wisely avoiding trying to beat either of the track's other artists for sheer bawdiness" by Hogan[53] and "working perfectly with the deep, subdued beat of Beyoncé's original" by Carolyn Menyes from the website Music Times.[55]
"Partition" is a two-part hip hop, dancehall and electro song with elements of trap.[8][9][10][11][12] It builds on a slinky Caribbean groove[9] and spacey heavy beats[13][14] provided by Roland TR-808 toms and bass drums.[15][16] The track also musically consists of sparse synthesizer pulses, little swoops and finger snaps.[17][18] The lyrics are candidly sexual;[19] Melissa Locker Time magazine wrote that "Partition" leaves no sexual innuendo unturned.[20] Commenting on Beyoncé's vocal styles and experimentation on the track, Annie Zaleski of Las Vegas Weekly noted that she displays much attitude through her lines and ornaments her singing with trills—rapid alternations between two adjacent notes, usually a semitone or tone apart.[21] Zaleski further wrote that Beyoncé adopts a doo-wop vocal-based style to sing some of the lyrics and even utters occasional purrs—murmuring sound expressive of pleasure.[21]
The song begins with a short call-and-response audio clip from The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour as Beyoncé asks the crowd "Lemme [sic] hear you say 'Hayyy [sic] Ms. Carter!'".[19] It then transitions into what Andrew Hampp of Billboard magazine called the "lady thug anthem" of "Yoncé".[19] Beyoncé delivers half-rapped verses on the first half of the song,[22] in which the female protagonist teases male subjects in a club as she turns heads.[23] In the first verse, she warns the other women in the club, "Every girl on here gotta look me up and down / All on Instagram cake by the pound". The singer adds on the second verse, "I sneezed on the beat and the beat got sicker."[19] "Yoncé" closes with the bridge as Beyoncé sings repeatedly, "Yoncé all on his mouth like liquor",[16] while an ascending siren echoes over a staccato bass that hits heavily and uniformly in the background.[24]
Beyoncé uses the 1998 emerging political sex scandal between US President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky (pictured) as "a euphemism for her man finishing on her clothing" as she sings, "He Monica Lewinskyed all on my gown".[11]
The second part, titled "Partition", is preceded by the sound of paparazzi camera clicks and a window whirring up, which separates it from the first part "Yoncé".[6][25] "Partition" has a fractured production and is lyrically about the female protagonist having sex with her romantic interest in the backseat of a limousine.[26][27] Caitlin White, writing for The 405, highlighted that the song details a romantic relationship in which women do not act as sexual objects during sexual intercourse but rather use "the physical act of love as a form of agency", from which they derive pleasure.[23] "Partition" gained significant attention for its explicit lyrics,[28] with frequent references made to the opening lines of the first verse in which Beyoncé asks her driver to put up the partition:[26]
Driver roll up the partition please
I don't need you seeing Yoncé on her knees
Took 45 minutes to get all dressed up
We ain't even gonna make it to this club
Now my mascara running, red lipstick smudged
Oh he so horny, yeah he want to ****
He popped all my buttons, and he ripped my blouse
He Monica Lewinskyed all on my gown
[29][30]
On the hook lines, Beyoncé completely lets go as she adopts whispery vocals, singing that she wants to please her man, "Take all of me / I just wanna be the girl you like, girl you like".[17][30] The closing minute of the song features a French spoken word interpolation, which translates roughly as: "Do you like sex? Sex. I mean, the physical activity. Coitus. Do you like it? You're not interested in sex? Men think that feminists hate sex, but it's a very stimulating and natural activity that women love". David Haglund and Forrest Wickman of Slate magazine noted similarities between this spoken section and a similar quote by actress Julianne Moore in 1998 film The Big Lebowski.[31]
Upon the release of the album and "Partition", the song has been covered by multiple dance crews on YouTube.[56] Writing for Billboard, William Gruger and Jason Lipshutz thought that the dance videos uploaded to YouTube helped "Partition" to appear on charts such as the Hot 100, although there were no official videos released as well as the audio was not available via digital retailers such as Spotify or Pandora.[56] They further compared "Partition" to "Harlem Shake", which performed well on charts due to viral videos, later created the meme with the same name.[56] However they also noted the differences that "Partition" was mostly covered by professional choreographers, unlike "Harlem Shake".[56]
Marry the Night, Government Hooker, Heavy Metal Lover, Bloody Mary, Heavy Metal Lover, Electric Chapel, Heavy Metal Lover, The Edge of Glory and Heavy Metal Lover. Those sings make Born This Way her second best album
