Queen Bey has really out done herself with this new album.
Over the last week I’ve been listening to the whole album over and over; the messages that were conveyed in the duration of this visual album is simply haunting. This is what I took from her visual album.
When you watch the visual album, it’s divided up into 11 segments
- Intuition
- Denial
- Anger
- Apathy
- Emptiness
- Accountability
- Reformation
- Forgiveness
- Resurrection
- Hope
- Redemption
Granted my views of the infidelity that is so delicately detailed throughout the album is differed from others. Yes, infidelity occurred, but that isn’t the message of the album entirely. Perhaps infidelity occurred between Beyoncé and Jay, but it’s clear that there was reconciliation since "Formation" is the epilogue when the credits roll.
It may be shocking (or not so shocking) to those that peeped the sneak disses from Beyoncé’s previous songs and albums predating lemonade that is not the true message of this album in my opinion.
Personally this is her saying, “Hey, glad I got y’all attention but let’s talk about the real issues at hand” which means confronting the violence against black youth portrayed in the final music videos.
But it doesn’t stop there, she also touches on the empowerment of African- American women in today’s society. If you listened to the visual album carefully then you heard Malcom X’s quote:
“The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman."
I can attest to that, it’s a true statement that is unfortunately still carried on today. As much as I’d like to deny it and wish it weren’t true, it’s one of life’s harsh realities.But it’s something that can be fixed, and the oppression of black women and every woman out there for that matter really is getting addressed in this very album.
To keep on with the black woman empowerment, Beyoncé featured some pretty fierce female leads throughout the course of the album such as,
- Quvenzhané Wallis, actress in the movies "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and "12 Years a Slave"
- Serena Williams, tennis star,
- Zendaya Coleman, singer/actress/model
- Amandla Stenberg, actress from the movie "The Hunger Games"
- Winnie Harlow, former contestant for "America's Top Model"
- Chloe and Hallie Bailey, teen singers signed under Beyoncé’s management company
- Carla Marie Williams, A British songwriter
- Warsan Shire, A Somali-British poet, whose poems served as interludes between songs
More inspiring people were also starred in this album including Beyoncé’s mother and grandmother who speaks about making lemonade towards the end of the album.
In addition, address the ever famous quote that’s got everyone (including myself) riled up, "Becky with the good hair" – which people think that it’s fashion designer Rachel Roy and after a couple days people thought it was Rita Ora which, I’ll admit, the pic was a really good coincidence. But after a little bit of research I learned a little more.
During the times of slavery, slave owners would assign lighter skin slaves with “good hair” to indoor house work, while their darker skin counter parts with kinky natural hair to the outdoor work.
Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharps, co-authors of "Hair Story" explained the damaged that carried to the generations later:
Black people themselves internalized the concept … [and] propagated the notion that darker-skinned Blacks with kinkier hair were less attractive, less intelligent, and worth less than their lighter-hued brothers and sisters.
This theory carried down to later generations and is slowly being deprogrammed by young African American girls today.
All in all, when Beyoncé told her cheating partner to “call Becky with the good hair” she’s not just throwing shade to a girl with a nice blow-out, but to our ancestral baggage.
The last message being conveyed was the message of forgiveness and reconciliation; that sometimes, as much as someone may hurt you, you have to move past it. Even Beyoncé says it herself during the song Sandcastle, every promise doesn't work out the way it's supposed to.
In regards to the title, because of the infidelity, the music was made. Life handed her lemons so she made lemonade.
So essentially, what I’m taking from this whole album, is to be comfortable with the wonderful person that you are and when life hands you lemons, you make the best damn lemonade you can.
