“Daddy Lessons” is Beyoncé’s first foray into country. The song is about her childhood roots in Texas and the lessons she learned from her father.

Beyoncé’s father, Mathew Knowles, has been a driving force not just in her life but also in her career— he managed her from the Girls Tyme days through Destiny’s Child and through her early solo career. However, Beyoncé fired her father as her manager in March 2011. Many wondered if that was motivated by bad feelings between Mathew and Jay Z, though it turned out that it may have been driven as much by Mathew’s infidelity to Tina Knowles. Mathew and Tina split up in December 2011—less than a year after Beyoncé and Mathew parted ways professionally.

A recurring theme throughout Lemonade are the similarities between fathers and husbands. If Beyoncé can forgive her father, can she also forgive her husband?

This is not the first time Bey has sung about her father: Her 2003 debut album featured the song “Daddy” where she sang:

I want my unborn son to be like my daddy
I want my husband to be like my daddy

The Lemonade clip for “Daddy Lessons” features video clips of Beyoncé and her father, whilst also featuring clips of her and her daughter, Blue Ivy.

Kevin Cossom, who co-wrote the song with Wynter Gordon and producer-songwriter Alex Delicata, talked to Billboard about making this song. He said the demo version was recorded two years before the song was released. He added:

On that record “Daddy Lessons,” we were in my condo in Miami. Wynter just wanted to do something from scratch. I called over a good friend of mine, Alex Delicata, who is also co-producer and writer. He played the guitar, wrote it and we pretty much pressed record on the laptop and sang it down—harmonies, stomping and clapping, and that was the vibe…Wynter wanted to take it to Bey…We really didn’t know [if the song would make the album] but we knew it was Bey.