 Before meeting Beyoncé , Rich Harrison had <unk> the beat of the song . He sampled the hook 's instrumentation from the 1970 song " Are You My Woman ? ( Tell Me So ) " , originally written by Eugene Record , frontman of the Chicago @-@ based vocal group The Chi @-@ Lites . When Harrison first played the beat to his friends , they could not " dig it " , and this made him realize that he had conceived something special , which people would appreciate better after hearing the whole record . Harrison decided not to market the track and instead waited for the right artist to record it : " I had it in the chamber , I had not really <unk> it much , because sometimes you do not want to come out of the bag before it 's right . People do not really get it and you will leave them with a foul taste in their mouth . " 
