It’s also a fiery and powerful display of technique and command. The album works as a wronged-party rage-out of epic proportions. Jay comes out of this thing looking sad and shaken and faithless. It’s mean as hell: “You can watch my fat ass twist, boy / As I bounce to the next dick, boy.” It plays around with his public persona, as well as hers: “Big homie better grow up.” It gets into deeper, more painful territory than most emo-frontman types would dare: “Pictures snatched out the frame / Bitch, I scratched out your name and your face / What is it about you that I can’t erase?” And when she purrs, “I’m just too much for you,” it’s a crushing blow. Whether or not she intends for this to be an open fuck-you letter to Jay, it works as a more effective ethering of the man than the actual song “Ether” was. That falls under the “pop” part of “pop music.” She knows how this is all going to be perceived, and at least on some level, she’s having fun with it.Īnd as a relationship-strife album, this thing is an absolute motherfucker. She’s harnessing her own public persona, pushing it in a new direction, projecting heavy emotions all over the place. Beyoncé knows exactly what she’s doing here.
Whether or not she’s going through the things she sings about on this album, she’s playing on our idea that she could be singing about herself. Beyoncé has been with Jay for most of her career, and she’s written plenty of breakup songs - “Irreplaceable” springs immediately to mind - without sending us scurrying to our keyboards, wondering if a divorce is imminent. We can’t know how much of the album is autobiographical Beyoncé and Jay Z have gone to great lengths in the past to keep their private story out of our Twitter feeds, at least as much as public figures of their stature possibly can. Of course, the album gets plenty of charge from what we think we know about Beyoncé and Jay Z’s private life. I do, however, want to write about this album as an exceptional piece of pop music, because that’s what I think it is. This is true of every album, but it’s especially true of this one: I don’t want anyone reading this to think that I’m giving the final word on this, or that I think I’m giving the final word. Here at Stereogum, we’ve already run a great piece from Collin Robinson that gets deeper into the album on that level. As a part of the demographic that’s done most of that disrespecting over the centuries, I’m a pure interloper when it comes to talking about all the levels on which an album like this works. So as a white man, I’m not going to attempt any of that. That resonates in a bunch of different directions, and one of those directions is this: They remind us that it is not a white man’s place to speak authoritatively about Lemonade. They put this rage and humiliation in a larger social context, making Beyoncé’s story one among many. Given that Lemonade is, above all, an album about personal heartbreak, a moment like that - and plenty more moments, both on the album and in the film - translate that pain on a larger scale. Beyoncé samples a 1962 Malcolm speech, a part where he calls the black woman the most disrespected person in the world. Retrieved November 21, 2016.When Malcolm X’s voice shows up midway through the short-film version of Beyoncé’s Lemonade, its inclusion says a lot. ^ "Beyonce Chart History (Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs)".
^ "Official R&B Singles Chart Top 40".CS1 maint: archived copy as title ( link) Retrieved May 7, 2016. ^ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100".^ " Archívum – Slágerlisták – MAHASZ" (in Hungarian).^ "Le Top de la semaine : Top Singles Téléchargés".^ "Beyonce Chart History (Canadian Hot 100)".Australian Recording Industry Association. ^ "Beyoncé Kicks Off 'Formation' Tour in Miami, Jay Z Shows Support But Doesn't Perform"."Beyonce Drops Stunning Standalone Video for 'All Night '". "All 12 of Beyonce's 'Lemonade' Tracks Debut on Hot 100".