Songfacts®:

• This song finds Beyoncé calling out her husband Jay Z for his alleged infidelity:
  
  Sorry, I ain't sorry
  Sorry, I ain't sorry
  I ain't sorry, nigga, nah
  
  Beyoncé is not apologizing for her anger. She doesn't care about the consequence of her rage.
• Beyoncé ends the song with the declaration:
  
  He only want me when I'm not there
  He better call Becky with the good hair
  
  Jay-Z has had a close relationship with Dutch-Indian fashion designer Rachel Roy for several years and in 2014, sources reported that Roy was being flirtatious with the rap mogul at a party. Afterwards, surveillance footage emerged showing Beyonce's sister Solange lashing out at Jay Z in an elevator.
  
  After Lemonade premiered, there was speculation among the Beyhive that Beyoncé was pointing her finger at Roy with her "Becky with the good hair" lyric.
  
  Roy took to Instagram to deny she is the woman that the pop star is referencing. "I respect love, marriages, families and strength," she wrote. "What shouldn't be tolerated by anyone, no matter what, is bullying, of any kind."
  
  Bey previously referenced the elevator incident on her "Flawless" remix when she sung: "We escalate, up in this bitch like elevators, of course sometime s--t go down when there's a billion dollars on an elevator."
• Beyoncé wrote the song with singer-songwriter Wynter Gordon and Brooklyn multimedia artist Melo-X. The trio also helmed the track, along with "Flawless" producer Hit-Boy.
  
  According to Melo-X, the tune was written in the summer of 2015. He recalled to Pitchfork:
  
  "That track was kind of like creating a vibe in the studio. We were just working on a lot of stuff and the idea came up pretty simple. It was just some cool keys, drum patterns, and we started putting down vocal ideas and lyric ideas. And throughout the month we added to it and Hit-Boy came in and sprinkled all these different sounds and layers to it and made it come together fully."
  
  "We created that vibe together. It plays a key part in the record because I think it's at a vital point in the record. It's all these different emotions and different sounds and different layers."
• The song's music video features a cameo from Serena Williams. The tennis champion explained to the New York Daily News that she had known the clip's director, Dikayl Rimmasch, since she was nine years old. "I know Beyoncé pretty well, so they were like, 'We would love for you to be in this particular song," she added. "It's about strength and it's about courage, and that's what we see you as.'"
  
  We see Williams demonstrate her twerking skills. "She told me that she just wants me to dance, like just be really free and just dance like nobody's looking and go all out," the tennis star said. "So that wasn't easy in the beginning, but then it got easier. ... I thought that particular song on the visual album was really a strong song, and it was also really fun at the same time."
• According to co-writer Wynter Gordon, Becky isn't anyone in particular. "I laughed, like this is so silly. Where are we living?" Gordon said to Entertainment Weekly about the online speculation regarding the identity of Beyoncé's supposed rival. "I was like, 'What day in age from that lyric do you get all of this information? Is it really telling you all that much, accusing people?'"
• Laverne Cox almost landed a role in the song's music video. Beyonce's mother, Tina Knowles, called the transgender star asking if she'd be interested in making an appearance in the promo. Cox was keen on the idea but was too busy shooting her role of Rocky Horror Picture Show villain Dr. Frank-N-Furter. The actress told Access Hollywood:
  
  "She's (Tina) like, 'Could you make a video of yourself with some great lighting... I know you're shooting... and could you get the DP (director of photography) to shoot you saying I'm not sorry in the camera?'
  
  They were just gonna try to do it at the last minute; they wanted to get me and other powerful women doing this... I was like, 'Well, I'm shooting this movie... I'm in this very specific costume. And then Beyoncé had to deliver the album and so they scrapped the idea."