All the Philly artists Beyoncé has sampled or referenced in her music

While the queen may not be from Philly herself, Beyoncé's ties to the city are no secret.

Her two headlining Made in America sets are still discussed to this day. Her team commissioned a local bakery to make her birthday cake (twice). She hired a Philly designer to make her mirrorball cowboy hat. And she prominently featured “The Voice of Philadelphia,” Kevin JZ Prodigy, in Renaissance’s “Pure/Honey.”

But Prodigy isn’t the only Philly artist to get musical recognition from Bey.

» READ MORE: B’Day: All our Beyoncé Renaissance Tour coverage in one place

Ahead of Wednesday’s performance at Lincoln Financial Field, here’s a look at times Beyoncé has sampled tracks from, name-dropped, or drawn inspiration from local or local-adjacent artists.

1. Foremost Poets — “Moonraker”

At the start of “Alien Superstar,” a voice-over begins, “Please do not be alarmed, remain calm. Do not attempt to leave the dance floor. The DJ booth is conducting a troubleshoot test of the entire system.” The voice-over is directly sampled from Foremost Poet’s “Moonraker” from 1998. . Foremost Poets is Johnny Dangerous, a Philly-born and New Jersey-based artist best known for his underground dance tracks. In the original track, “Moonraker” — one of Foremost Poets’ most popular songs — the now-easily recognized voice-over begins about 20 seconds into the song.

2. Animal Collective — “My Girls”

In “6 Inch” from Lemonade, Bey uses a section of a 2009 track by the experimental pop band Animal Collective, and puts her spin on it. The technical term is that she interpolates it. You can hear it at the 3:01 mark. While the whole band isn’t from Philadelphia, one of Animal Collective’s members — Brian Weitz, who goes by the stage name Geologist — grew up in Philly and Baltimore.

3. Boyz II Men — “Uhh Ahh”

As if these artists need an introduction. When Beyoncé’s album 4 dropped in 2011, it included the single “Countdown,” which directly samples a harmonized countdown by Philly’s own Boyz II Men and originally featured in the group’s song, “Uhh Ahh.”

4. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TEDx Talk “We Should All Be Feminists”

In her song, “***Flawless,” Beyoncé includes a portion of a TEDx Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about feminism. “We teach girls to shrink themselves … We say to girls, ‘You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise, you will threaten the man,’” she says as Beyoncé sings operatically under the voice-over. When Adichie was 19, she left Nigeria to study communications and political science at Drexel University, eventually graduating from Eastern Connecticut State. Later, she received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

5. Kevin JZ Prodigy — “Feels Like”

We already know “The Voice of Philadelphia” is sampled throughout Bey’s Renaissance track “Pure/Honey.” Now, you can also hear him when the “Renaissance” tour hits Philly and other tour stops. Beyoncé's team had him travel to Los Angeles to record his voice — which is featured as part of the tour’s opening sequence, as well as during the tour’s versions of “Formation,” “Cozy,” and “Pure/Honey.” Read more from our interview with Prodigy here.

6. Cassidy — “I’m a Hustla”

In the version of “Crazy in Love” Bey performed on her 2019 Homecoming Live album, she uses a sample from Cassidy’s song “I’m a Hustla,” which he performs with Jay-Z. Cassidy is known for songs including “Hotel” (feat. R. Kelly) and “Get No Better” (feat. Mashonda). In his teens, he gained a reputation for being one of Philly’s best battle rappers.

7. Ms. Jade — “Ching Ching”

In the outro of “Rocket,” the sultry eighth track on her self-titled 2014 album, Beyoncé sings “We’re so much more than pointless fixtures / Instagram pictures / Consumers / (What about that ching-ching-ching?).” It’s a reference to rapper Ms. Jade’s 2002 song “Ching Ching” feat. Nelly Furtado and Timbaland, which was a single on the Philly artist’s only album, Girl, Interrupted. Ms. Jade is still Philly-based and released a new single, “Celebration,” last year.

Last summer, Bey dropped a batch of remixed versions of her hit single, “Break My Soul.” One of them was “The Queen’s Remix,” featuring Madonna. In the remix, the duo pay homage to Madonna’s “Vogue” and name-drop several Black women artists, like Grace Jones and Diana Ross. As it turns out, several of the icons named in the song have Philly connections including:

To listen to the playlist, head over to tinyurl.com/phillybeyonce.

Inquirer Social Platforms Editor Erin Gavle contributed to this article.