When Beyoncé released her surprise self-titled visual album in 2013, the world wondered, how could any artist ever come close to creating something so exciting, engaging and iconic? Would anyone ever be able to top a work that virtually redefined the way albums are made and distributed?
As it turns out, the only artist who can top Beyoncé is Beyoncé.
In a roughly hour-long HBO special at 9 p.m. on Saturday, the artist premiered a short film using music from her brand new album Lemonade, which dropped on Tidal later that evening.
In the beginning, the film seems like the most masterfully devised breakup piece of all time — a giant fuck you to Jay Z (“If you try this shit again / you gon’ lose your wife). However, as the film progresses, it’s easy to realize that Lemonade is no breakup album. Lemonade is Beyoncé’s taking agency over every emotion: anger, sadness, jealousy, contempt, euphoria and rebellion. Even more than that, Lemonade is, as social entrepreneur and lawyer Semhar Araia tweeted, “A spiritual liberation & celebration of women and blackness.”
The film employs the work of a handful of accomplished and diverse directors, including Kahlil Joseph, Melina Matsoukas, Todd Tourso, Dikayl Rimmasch, Jonas Jonas Åkerlund, Mark Romanek and Beyoncé herself.
Laolu Senbanjo, a Nigerian visual artist, painted many of the film’s actresses and dancers’ faces and bodies, using his self-coined Afromysterics style to elevate the visuals. Throughout the film, Beyoncé reads gripping and often haunting excerpts of poetry written by Somali-British poet Warsan Shire.
Familiar faces appear alongside Beyoncé, including tennis player Serena Williams, former America’s Next Top Model contestant Winnie Harlow, Hunger Games star and young activist Amandla Stenberg, Disney star Zendaya and 12-year-old actress Quvenzhané Wallis. It’s an eclectic group of black women that also features Lesley McSpadden and Sybrina Fulton, the mothers of Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, respectively.
The cast helps make clear what the film is; as filmmaker Numa Perrier tweeted, Lemonade is “an ode to Black Women” and a depiction of “black futurist vulnerable feminism.”
“Thank you Beyoncé for reminding us of our strength,” tweeted actress Amandla Stenberg, who made a cameo in Lemonade.
It’s unclear if or when Lemonade will be released from the confines of Tidal and will make its way to iTunes and Spotify, but until then, listeners will have to pray it’s made available before their Tidal free trials run out. If you’ve already used your free trial on Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo, it’s probably time to shell out $13 and pay the old miser Jay Z himself. It’s a steep going rate, but definitely worth every penny.
