Beyonce is an event. Her projects are black holes, sucking up the space and time around them at a dizzying pace. She’s become the rule and the exception. The one pop star with a capital “P” that can tote the powerful nexus of feminism, America and America’s great sin in both of her cosmic hands. Who can encapsulate the struggles of the most disrespected people in America: black women. And yet light a path to reconciliation inside the inner and outer worlds of their shared lineage and narrative. Whether the infidelity comes from Jay Z or Matthew Knowles or whomever; whether the fractured inner-world given as penance to the great tide of women our country has produced but not ever kept, her second “visual” album, Lemonade speaks to those promises unfulfilled, uncounted, waiting to be honored and baptizes itself in the murky poignancy of cheating and being cheated. Out of trust, out of hope, out of the promise of new lives and old moments. All of them now to be rewritten. This, a most personal admission, is strange from Beyonce and yet it’s dazzling.
Everyone remembers the elevator incident. A grainy video showed sister Solange laying H-town hands on the serenely coiffed Jigga. The video went viral. Then the theories behind the incident did, too, as everyone wondered whether or not there was trouble in paradise. Whispers of Dame Dash’s ex-wife Rachel Roy snuck around the web. Rita Ora’s face popped up, too, if only for a moment. Paradise? No. Resilience? Yes.
Split into three acts, the album opens with her husband’s secrets spilled. Each song moves through her courses of grief, from the acceptance and anger that permeates “Pray You Catch Me” on down the rabbit hole to the pillar of strength “Sorry.” “Sorry” is particularly ear worming, bells softly chiming around the chorus. But the song does so much, showing how emotions can shift in the blink of an eye. From, “I ain’t sorry / Boy, bye” and “ He only want me when I’m not there / He better call Becky with the good hair” to “Let’s take a toast to the good life / Suicide before you see this tear fall down my eye.” Act 2 begins with “6 Inch,” enticing The Weeknd’s symbolic woman: dazed, unaffected, strong, intoxicating. Someone whose savagery can only be matched by acceptance. In this act, ending in the gorgeous “Sandcastles,” Beyonce finds a way to work through the broken promises of her younger self (“Daddy Lessons”), which sees her reclaim country to great effect, and then reclaim redemption. “Sandcastles” itself is a stunning piano ballad, but the imagery of Jay Z, her adulterous hubby rubbing her ankle as if that is the only space left she trusts him to love, is haunting. The third act crescendos with the James Blake assisted “Forward,” which reeks of sainthood as his voice moves the mood toward the tabernacle. The reconciliation is complete on “All Night,” for now. But Beyonce’s territory is more than just the body of relationship. It’s the politics of that body, not only susceptible to defilement by those who count black women as something dangerous and foreign, but by those they count as familiar, whose lines remind them of their fathers and their brothers.
Unfaithfulness, an issue everyone can understand is the album’s cause. That single nod sends this record into the stratosphere, as Beyonce is so tight lipped there have been an army of think pieces devoted to the lack of any real access journalists and their outlets have in the web age for that issue, her silence remains at the center. Yet, that fact does not dominate the LP. It’s the veracity of the sounds and artistic achievements of the visuals (a marquee that screams “Loveless,” a bat named “hot sauce,” multiple scenes of loving, simple sisterhood, a Jay Z who’s reticent, a speech about turning lemons into lemonade) weighted by her admission but not sunk by it, which stretch into what becomes a feast of genres, both musical and literary, tackled with absolute mastery. She’s the most resonant, the most complete and fascinating star in the world.
The video portion of her jaunt through the fragility of promise is layered with yoruba imagery from Laolu Senbanjo, the poetry of belonging and misplacement of Warsan Shire, and the madcap magic of the American south. Beyonce now is not just from the southern United States, but of it. Painting herself in the regalia of its cultural contradictions and washing herself in the saltwater of its dashed dreams. She turns a tumult of contributors into a tapestry. Boots is once again apart of the fray, but there are many others. From variant collaborations with Brooklyn multi-disciplinary artist Melo X, to more traditional names like Kevin Garrett, Diplo, Wynter Gordon, The Dream, and Mike Dean. Then there are the oddballs. Scraps of undercurrent taken from Ezra Koenig, Father John Misty, and Soulja Boy. Of course, the features: Jack White (The White Stripes), The Weeknd, James Blake and Kendrick Lamar. But there’s more and more. Her cup overflows.
Lemonade is transcendent not only because it sheds a light on the voices and struggles of the black and brown women relegated to telling their stories by candlelight, suffering from estrangement, but because it highlights how that voice (through every genre and darted through with real grace) is literally everywhere and apart of everything. It is both album and manifesto, and illustrates the true power of art. The power to conjure back from the dark the voice of people the world has chosen to ignore.
feel free to change the domain to BeyoncéDX, cuz you been coverin her more than any rapper in the last month.
she’s been poppin’ more than any rapper this month. I actually liked this album more than that sleepy ass drake album
Drake aint hip hop he pop singer rnb
Drake aint hip hop he pop singer rnb
This is a hip hop website not the Harvard Medical Journal. Please use everyday English when doing reviews.
Illiterate?
The most brilliant release of the year.
Haha… No.. Her sisters album was better
Yoy wrote great review. Touch all aspects but not too much. It was easy to read yet understand the album well.
I give this album 5 for being great body of work from album to video with so much to discussed in deep.
WhackSauce
Her most cohesive album yet. Brilliant storytelling/lyrics, and I love the variety of musical genres, which she knocks out of the park every time. And the film is beyond words. Impossible to forget. She continues to grow. Best album of the year thus far.
Came here with my adblock on just to hate on u fuccbois for reviewing an R&B album on a hip hop website.
Another dumb ass person
Forgot to rate. Pure fire
overrated.. musically it was all over the place without direction
nice
So many layers, so many feels…this album made me self evaluate, which is what great art should do. Amazing!
i want to split beyonce in half with my cock i fucked her so hard. if there was a god wed all have a bitch like this willing to suck us every morning and before bed and fuck us anytime we wanted and give us anal without saying give me some of that good weed you got before i do it. just do it without the weed cause you like it. oh and make me a meal instead of me cooking everything. but there is no god and we got girls who fart and belch and cheat cause they hoes.
You sound so stupid!
I love every single song and as a whole it is a MASTERPIECE! Great job Beyonce
Musical this this is way better than views, fuckin crazy
Can we watch the video???? If we can how??? tried you tube got nothing but got people talking about her video.
Buy the album.
why is this being rated on HIPHOPDX? this isn’t a fucking r&b site
Lmao!!! Who cares? Why are you mad about it?
not mad at all actually…show of hands tho, who asked you? (sees no one…keeps on living)…judging by your other comments to posts, you seem like some sort of dx troll…you getting paid or you a therapist? nobody cares what you have to say in response to their posts
not mad at all actually…show of hands tho, who asked you? (sees no one…keeps on living)…judging by your other comments to posts, you seem like some sort of dx troll…you getting paid or you a therapist? nobody cares what you have to say in response to their posts
More than half of the people on this site wouldn’t know if it’s a classic because we are here for hip hop!!!
Because you said so?
Because you said so?
Not only is it not hip hop its also not R&B, it’s just urban pop. How long does it take you guys to review an album anyways? Your lover boy drake’s album has been out for a week.
Y’ALL MUTHAFUCKAS REACHING NOW WHO DA FUCK RATES BEYONCE ALBUM I WANNA SEE DA FUCK NIGGA FACE ONLY BITCHES RATE HER SHIT DX CUT DAT BULLSHIT OUT!!!!
Most disrespected people in America are BLACK WOMEN…. disrespected by whom? Other Black People, white people, by who? And why are they the most disrespected?
Very very very dope.
The album is another mediocre and overhyped album by an overrated Pop Star.
100% agree.
She doesn’t even write her own lyrics…..
Really??!!! This album is a master piece!!
!!!!!
let me school you young bucks… LEMONADE – lUMINATI… well, just sound “lemonade” out and say it super slow.
No way this is a classic. Formation sucks and her new single sucks. With every album you guys come out and give her great reviews, all they songs blow up for a HOT MINUTE and fade away real quick. Nobody even remembers her HIT from her last album… Fact is she does not have a Purple Rain or Thriller and shes the biggest thing, all because of Marketing Money. Face it.
I commend Beyonce for attempting to speak for our black queens – that’s great, I mean they are terribly marginalized and overlooked in general society. But this album was pretty average for me in the sense that major black popstars who have come before her (Stevie, Marvin, etc.) just executed speaking on political and personal strife in so much more creative ways. I think this style of working communally on an album so personal loses it’s stronghold because it would be better if you sat down and wrote your own pain instead of just getting what’s current and hot (James Blake, Weeknd, K.Dot, Ezra Koering, Melo X) and flipping it for commercial reasons. I dunno – good intentions – good execution – could it be better and more believable if she hadn’t focused so much on Jay-Z’s infidelity and looked at the vast issues that affect her & black women as well as women in general (over-sexualization, disproportionate employment oppotunities, blah blah). It’s just scary when popstars try to go personal and political cause at he end of the day they are popstars and they must make themselves and corporations a buck. So there’ll always be comprimise. 3/5 for the Beyonce
But fam the visuals make me believe her heart really in this. Like you cant even stunt on the visuals – and she has to get the praise due to her for that because it adds a layer to the storytelling as a whole. Y’all sleeping on the visual album format – this woman innovating out here. Visual albums are what artists should now strive to release more especially at this point in the information age – we consumers are bored with the same old thing & album cycles!!
But fam the visuals make me believe her heart really in this. Like you cant even stunt on the visuals – and she has to get the praise due to her for that because it adds a layer to the storytelling as a whole. Y’all sleeping on the visual album format – this woman innovating out here. Visual albums are what artists should now strive to release more especially at this point in the information age – we consumers are bored with the same old thing & album cycles!!
L
I
T
Lemonade
Is
Trash
This site is lame. Rating this album so good this aint hip hop. By the way there was 72 writers on this album. You call that talent? Shes a generic pawn of the occult music industry and they got you all fooled
The number of writers keeps ballooning the angrier you lames get lol
It’s probably her best album but it’s still got some clunkers on it.
nahboss!
This is not a good album.
I guess pandering to the largest group on the planet(bitter women), paid off…
he’s influential, even when he cheats lmao
3/5
Damn Bey a bitch fo’ this one son shit I ain’t had no pussy from ma gurl since this here man hating ass piece of trash dropped, talkin bout go see Becky wit the good hurr fo’ my piece of pussy sheeet Beyoncé a Nigga Finna nut in sumn soon gurl! Spreadin that dick hating propaganda brainwashin all dese niggaz’s hoes ouchea gurl, get the fuck onn witchya fat juicy hard dick makin ass gurl u lit I love u fuck that big lip nigga fucks wit me gurl
Im just curious but was any of that english?
that’s poetry
Catchy tunes, but don’t like the new country/grassy songs
Trash only good song the kendrick joint and james blake dudes sick beyonce sucks belts vocals with a voice i hate
I love this album! Kinda short but its very good!!
You know hip hop journalism is damn near dead when a Beyonce album is ranked higher than every single hip hop album on a website called Hip Hop DX
Why is this here? Will Hip-Hop DX also be reviewing Rock and Folk albums in the future?
Yaaas this album is fire.
Not Hip Hop. How do you dq an album?
How the fuck is this Hip Hop? Even still how the fuck is this album rated almost a 5?
Ahhhh mmm
Not a Hip Hop album, most of it wasn’t written or produced by Beyoncé and none of the visual stuff was Beyoncé’s idea either.
How is this Hip Hop?
A transcendent album about the struggles of black women where over 50% of the content was written by white people. Solange’s album gets a pass on that issue though. Not sure why you guys reviewed this album. Definitely not Hip Hop.
The black struggle through Erza Koenig, Jack White and Diplo’s eyes
^^^ This
Her masterpiece so far
It’s honestly a trash album based on a lie. Beyoncé is flat out satanist garbage these days. 0/5