Saturday night Beyonce touched down on television sets across the world, whether or not you had an HBO subscription, with a world premiere event, Lemonade, which had been cryptically teased only by a 60-second trailer involving an enigmatic parking lot, gold cornrows, and fiery explosions. Despite the scarce details, it became very clear from the onset that Beyonce was delivering a trickle-down form of her new album, as stunning visuals unfolded onto the screen soundtracked by never-bef0re-heard Beyonce clips, featuring a vocal guest appearance from The Weekend, and a delightful on-screen cameo from a twerking Serena Williams, and calming one from Jay Z (relax, social media, she wasn’t breaking up with him via an HBO special).
There was angry Beyonce, there was mischievous Beyonce, there was vulnerable Beyonce, and, more often than not, there was powerful, all-encompassing, brazen Beyonce, explaining in chilling details–“grief sedated by orgasm,” excerpts from Maclolm X’s famous Who Taught You To Hate Yourself? speech, “The most neglected person in America is the Black woman”–the stages of falling out of love, of self-realization, of understanding one’s place both in love, and in a society constantly raging with racial imbalances and socioeconomic scale tipping. The music ranged from the traditional Dangerously In Love Beyonce to the fringe folk vibes that came with 4, on to the central Hip Hop influences of her most recent LP. There was a Michael Brown tribute. There were old clips of Matthew Knowles.
And suddenly, there was the album.
