Boots (musician)

Jordan Asher Cruz,

With his contributions to Beyoncé's self-titled fifth studio album, released in December 2013, Boots came onto the music scene largely unknown.^[4] Upon the release of Beyoncé, he updated his Facebook page, saying he had been "working on [Beyoncé] for most of the past year", and that he had "produced 85% of [the album] and [had] four original songs on the album".^[10] Boots contributed additional production, background vocals and instruments to the album's first R&B/hip hop single, "Drunk in Love", featuring Jay-Z.^[11][12] Beyoncé later referenced Boots' work on the album, saying he is "a new producer that [she] completely respect[s]", that "he is an innovator", and she is "so proud to work with him".^[1]

In an interview with The New York Times, Boots would not speak of his previous projects or how Beyoncé found his demo, only confirming he signed a publishing deal with Roc Nation in June 2013. A last-ditch bout of songwriting yielded “I'm On To You”, a moody minor-key song with layers of eerie background voices and a particular rhythmic undertow. He saw it as a template for a solo album. “That song was my heart,” he said. At his first meeting with Beyoncé, he had already written songs he believed would resonate with her, but she was more enthused by his experimental material. Beyoncé refused to leave the song alone, saying to Boots, "This shit has to knock harder than any rap album out there." The song became "Haunted", and the previous title "I'm On To You" was instead recorded as a phrase in the song's refrain.^[13][14]

Following an infuriating meeting with a record label, Boots wrote the stream of consciousness rap from "Ghost" and played it for Beyoncé in the early stages of recording. She identified with its content as she had similar experiences from signing a recording contract at a young age. Boots made the song in a hypnotic state, saying, "I started with guitars, just building the layers until they resembled Aphex Twin soundscapes. And then I completely contained them within the beat".^[13]

Solo releases

On February 13, 2014 Beyoncé's official Facebook page shared a link to Boots' personal website which contained an original composition titled "Dust" with an accompanying music video.^[15] The song was of the first to be released which featured Boots singing lead vocals.^[16]

On April 11, 2014 Boots uploaded a photo to his Twitter reportedly of a track list. The track list contained all of the songs he had previously released. Prominent features listed were

In early 2017, Cruz started production on animated series,[34] where he serves as creator, director, writer, animator, and show runner.

Cruz would subsequently go on to write and develop more film and television projects with his production company, 13Lux Films.^[35] In 2021, Cruz wrote, directed and produced along with

• 2014: "Early" (with Run the Jewels) on Run the Jewels 2
• 2017: "2100" (with Run the Jewels) on Run the Jewels 3

Songwriting, production, and miscellaneous credits

Awards and nominations

Grammy Awards

References