It is no secret that Beyoncé is a musical icon in our day and age but she is also a newly pronounced public feminist and black rights advocate, so what is she saying with her new album and film accompaniment? Her new album, Lemonade, caused quite an uproar in the social media world in the past week. The surface of this album may lead fans to believe that Jay-Z was cheating on Queen B, but is this really all it is? Upon deeper investigation, this album is correlated heavily with a lot of our current problems in the US and around the world.
Many were taken aback by the public proclamation of her advocation of the Black Power Movement at the Super Bowl a couple of months ago. She has been very private about a lot of the aspects of her life for years, giving only a handful of interviews in the past five years, but the Super Bowl gave people a whole new perspective. It seemed to be the first time that Beyoncé fully embraced her heritage and background as a black woman. She performed from the heart and gave a performance that left nearly every person in shock, appalled. This public display gave her a reputation that she most definitely upheld in Lemonade. Her full embrace of her heritage opened the door to a whole lot more material to work with.
The social media world was taken by storm with Lemonade and the accusation of Jay-Z and Becky with the good hair, but was Beyoncé making a political statement or using a clever way to get back at her husband? The answer to this can be found through the deep imagery found throughout. The visual album is enough for any viewer to see that Beyoncé has something to say. She features the work of British-Somalian poet Warsan Shire, the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner while they hold photographs of their passed sons and has cameos by various young African-American celebrities. She also previews a small amount of a Malcolm X speech where he proclaims, "the most disrespected person in America is the black woman." She is addressing the very important issue of racism that has plagued our nation for years now. The addition of the mothers of the murdered teens may not hurt, because it has become such a normal thing in our nation that we have become used to it. But B won't stand for this. She is creating a message that no one of color (or at all) should be disrespected in any way. Her message is loud and clear.
Why the name? The title is another display of the neglect of the black woman. She is making a statement that even when things are rough, you have to continue moving forward and pulling yourself up when you're down. The visual album features a video of Jay-Z's 90 year old grandmother stating, "I had my ups and downs, but I always find my inner strength to pull myself up. I was given lemons, but I made lemonade." The whole album is meant to be an empowerment to African American women around the world and show them that positive aspects exist and that giving up is not an option.
The political stances of Beyoncé have taken a lot of people by surprise and a small amount of people, I'm sure, have stopped listening to her music because of this. Many people do not like to think about the unfairness of our world when they are listening to music, but her stances make her music that much more meaningful. That being said, some things should be kept private. Being a celebrity and being in the spotlight makes it difficult and I understand that, but some things should be handled privately. The true message of her album, however, is extremely prevalent in our day and age and her way of pushing it forward is both interesting and informative.
