Rejoice! Beyoncé and Drake usher in a summer of house music

Every NYC Pride weekend has its anthem — that song you can’t escape whether you’re marching in the parade, bar-crawling in Hell’s Kitchen or club-hopping till the break of dawn. And this year’s rainbow-flag-waving jam that had everybody releasing their wiggle was, of course, Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul.”

The vibration-lifting first single from Bey’s upcoming seventh studio album, “Renaissance” (out July 29), is a foundation-shaking move that is giving house music — long the sound of the underground — a home in the mainstream. And just a few days before “Break My Soul” broke the internet, Drake released “Honestly, Nevermind,” an album that finds the “Way 2 Sexy” superstar twirling from hip-hop to house with the dance bona fides of South African beatmaster Black Coffee.

In the flash of a disco ball, two of music’s heaviest hitters double-declared that this was the summer of house. And as a longtime house head, I am all the way here for it.

Beyoncé’s new house single “Break My Soul” previews her seventh studio album, “Renaissance,” out July 29.
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The euphoric energy and cathartic release — both spirited and spiritual — of house music is exactly what a world of broken-down souls needs right now. After spending most of the last two-plus years stuck dancing around our own houses — or in NYC, one-bedroom apartments — it’s time to make like Technotronic and pump up the jam once again.

And while some haters have been dragging Beyoncé and Drake for showing their love for house — as if they were infiltrating some secret club that even A-listers like them can’t get into — it’s the ultimate co-sign for a genre that, much like disco before it, has been kicked to the basement over the years.

Drake
Drake teams up with South African DJ/producer Black Coffee on his new house album “Honestly, Nevermind.”
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Bey and Drizzy — who you can be sure are fans and students of music as much as they are bankable hitmakers — are both tapping into the black roots of house. They’re representing for a culture that, also because of its history in the gay community, has been largely marginalized.

But as much as Beyoncé and Drake are pumping new life into house music, they aren’t the first to take the genre for a crossover spin. In the early ’90s, CeCe Peniston, Crystal Waters and Robin. S. all scored top 10 singles with “Finally,” “Gypsy Woman” and “Show Me Love,” respectively. In fact, it’s Robin S.’s 1993 hit that Beyoncé samples on “Break My Soul.”

Robin S.
Robin S.’ 1993 hit “Show Me Love” is sampled on Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul.”
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Just in case you thought Drake invented the whole concept of rappers busting a move to house music, there was the whole hip-house movement in the early ’90s — made memorable by everybody from C&C Music Factory with “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” to Snap! with “The Power” to even Queen Latifah with “Come Into My House.”

And let’s not forget Madonna, who struck a house pose and brought the ballroom scene to the masses with “Vogue,” her 1990 No. 1 smash. Madge and other superstar divas such as Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey relied on their house remixes by the likes of Shep Pettibone, Frankie Knuckles and David Morales to connect them to a hipper — and highly influential — audience in the clubs.

Ultra Naté
House music legend Ultra Naté is celebrating the 25th anniversary of her 1997 classic “Free.”
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Carey was even known to go back in the studio to re-cut her vocals for her house remixes. That’s how much the music — and its pulsating power — meant to her.

Hopefully, house-music legends such as Ten City, Inner City and Ultra Naté — who is celebrating the 25th anniversary of her classic “Free” this year — will feel some more love and be discovered by some new fans because of Beyoncé and Drake. Now that would warm my soul. 

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