In February 2017, Solange won her first Grammy for “Best R&B Performance” with this very song. I am so happy 8 years later Cranes is finally out in the world.

I called Raphael that night and asked if he would help me to elevate the production on a few of the other songs of the album to see their fullest potential. When I finished writing and creating #aseatatthetable in a little house in New Iberia, Louisiana….I revisited “Cranes” once again. I went home and wrote “Cranes” that night in my hotel room. It was 8 years ago handed me a cd with a few instrumentals. Solange also shared how the song was made on her Instagram: And, eight years later, it’s really interesting that now, here we are again, not seeing what’s happening in our country, not wanting to put into perspective all of these ugly things that are staring us in the face.

And that line came to me because it felt so indicative of what was going on in my life as well. I remember thinking of it as an analogy for my transition-this idea of building up, up, up that was going on in our country at the time, all of this excessive building, and not really dealing with what was in front of us.

They were so heavy and such an eyesore, and not what I identified with peace and refuge. 'Crib so big/ Cranes in the sky,' he raps. I remember looking up and seeing all of these cranes in the sky. Ross opens his remix of the song with a boastful, uplifting verse, where he lists his successes, belongings and women. We weren’t out there wilin’ out and partying. You recorded a lot there as well, and I think we experienced Miami as a place of refuge and peace. There was a new condo going up every ten feet. I used to write and record a lot in Miami during that time, when there was a real estate boom in America, and developers were developing all of this new property. And I think every woman in her twenties has been there-where it feels like no matter what you are doing to fight through the thing that is holding you back, nothing can fill that void. I was working through a lot of challenges at every angle of my life, and a lot of self-doubt, a lot of pity-partying. So I really had to take a look at myself, outside of being a mother and a wife, and internalize all of these emotions that I had been feeling through that transition. You see the world through the lens of how you identify and have been identified at that time. We were junior high school sweethearts, and so much of your identity in junior high is built on who you’re with. I was just coming out of my relationship with Julez’s father. It’s the only song on the album that I wrote independently of the record, and it was a really rough time. “Cranes in the Sky” is actually a song that I wrote eight years ago. While asked by her sister Beyonce about the meaning of the song in Interview magazine, she explained: “Cranes in the Sky” describes Solange’s attempts at avoiding painful feelings

Cranes in the sky remix