Lemonade” is Beyoncé’s second visual album that made its debut on April 23 exclusively on Tidal and HBO.
Beyoncé’s sixth album includes collaborations with The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, Jack White and James Blake.
On the visual side, Beyoncé showcases aspects of New Orleans, Texas, traditional southern clothing, “Black Girl Magic,” and the Black Lives Matter movement with appearances by Sybrina Fulton, and Lesley McSpadden, the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown.
Some people say “Lemonade” is about Jay Z cheating on Beyoncé with a woman Beyoncé refers to as “Becky with the good hair.”
“I believe it’s a story about her life that she is trying to put out there to inspire other women to see what she has went through,” said student Ytzel Gonzalez.
The hour-long visual album has 11 songs that tell the story of Beyoncé going through the different phases from finding out her husband has been unfaithful to finding the strength to forgive him.
Throughout the entire short film Beyoncé includes spoken word poetry that she recites from the young British Somali poet, Warsan Shire.
These poems set the tone for each song’s transition and even support the beliefs of the album being about Jay Z’s possible infidelity.
“I don’t know when love became elusive. What I know is, no one I know has it. My father’s arms around my mother’s neck, fruit too ripe to eat. I think of lovers as trees growing to and from one another. Searching for the same light ” recited by Beyoncé in Lemonade and written by Shire.
Beyoncé has this way of making big statements by doing small moves.
She’s all about women empowerment and uses small excerpts from Malcolm X’s speech “Who Taught You To Hate Yourself” in her song “Don’t Hurt Yourself.”
“The most neglected person in America is the black women,” said Malcolm X one of the lines Beyoncé uses from his speech.
She shines lights on young African American girls in every single scene from Louisiana majorette dancers to young Hollywood appearances by Zendaya Coleman, Chloe, Halle Bailey and Amandla Stenberg all decked out in traditional southern dresses.
She made a lot of statements but none were bigger than her demonstration for Black Lives Matter not only did she show support for Sybrina Fulton, and Lesley McSpadden the mothers of Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin but the song “Freedom” has powerful lyrics that motivate her fight for equality.
“Freedom! Freedom! Where are you? Cause I need freedom too!”
Overall I enjoyed her story she told.
Do listeners think Jay Z cheated on Beyoncé?
“I don’t believe Jay Z cheated on Beyoncé because he looks so in love with her and I doubt he would do something like that to her and especially to his daughter,” said Gonzalez.
Personally I wouldn’t be surprised if he did cheat on her but whether or not you believe the rumors Beyoncé sure does know how to keep us talking.