Beyoncé released her new album “Lemonade,” along with her captivating art film of the same name, featuring all the new songs from the album on HBO last night. “Lemonade” drips with glorious feminist sentiments, references to the Black Lives Matter movement and calls to black women with empowering monologues and poetic lyrics. The film consists of 11 chapters that detail the crumble and rise of Beyoncé’s marriage to Jay Z, as well as the pressures black people, and black women in particular, face daily. Many of the songs’ lyrics allude to Jay Z being unfaithful. Rumors of Jay Z’s infidelity have been swirling for awhile now, but now it seems Beyoncé has finally addressed the rumors for herself, calling Jay out, while simultaneously still loving the man who “killed her.”
Chapter 1: Intuition
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The film begins with Beyoncé singing the opening lines, “You can taste the dishonesty/It’s all over your breath.” Bey is accompanied by a group of black women dressed in Southern Gothic apparel, staring pointedly into the camera. There are no men in sight—a reminder to viewers that this is a message to women specifically, as she eerily reads the first of many brilliant and beautiful feminist-filled monologues:
I tried to make a home out of you, but doors lead to trap doors, a stairway leads to nothing. Unknown women wander the hallways at night. Where do you go when you go quiet?
You remind me of my father, a magician...able to exist in two places at once. In the tradition of men in my blood, you come home at 3 a.m. and lie to me. What are you hiding?
The past and the future merge to meet us here. What luck. What a fucking curse.
The chapter ends with her standing at the edge of a building, and she jumps—a direct reference to the title of the opening track of the album, “Pray You Catch Me.”
But still inside me coiled deep was the need to know…
Chapter 3: Anger
A very fitting title for this next chapter. Beyoncé stands with a few other women in a parking lot, looking badass in a sports bra, leggings, a big fur coat and her long hair in braids that cascade down her back. These words, referring to the "other woman", play before we get into the equally angry and inspiring song, “Don’t Hurt Yourself”:
If it's what you truly want, I can wear her skin over mine. Her hair over mine. Her hands as gloves. Her teeth as confetti. Her scalp, a cap. Her sternum, my bedazzled cane. We can pose for a photograph, all three of us. Immortalized...you and your perfect girl.
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.
Why can't you see me? Why can't you see me? Why can't you see me? Everyone else can.
The song is not only directed at her supposed cheating husband, but also a bigger picture. Bey references the overall disrespect black women face, singing, “Motivate your ass/Call me Malcolm X.” The song then cuts to a voice over of Malcolm X, who says, “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.”
The voice over fades out, and then we go back to Beyoncé’s call-out to her husband, saying, “I am the dragon, breathe the fire/Beautiful man, I’m the lion/Beautiful man, I know you’re lying.”
The chapter ends with Bey rushing to the camera, throwing her fur coat down, singing, “This is your final warning/You know I give you life/If you try this shit again/You gon’ lose your wife.” And then she throws away her wedding ring as Chapter 3 comes to a close.
Chapter 4: Apathy
This chapter has one of the greatest monologues of them all:
So, what are you gonna say at my funeral now that you've killed me? Here lies the body of the love of my life, whose heart I broke without a gun to my head. Here lies the mother of my children, both living and dead. Rest in peace, my true love, who I took for granted. Most bomb pussy who, because of me, sleep evaded. Her god listening. Her heaven will be a love without betrayal. Ashes to ashes, dust to side chicks.
The song “Sorry” is a girl-power anthem featuring Serena Williams. The video is in black and white, and once again, shows only women. Girls on a school bus dance, Williams twerks, and Beyoncé gleefully sings, “Middle fingers up/Put em’ hands high/Wave it in his face/Tell him, ‘boy bye.’”
Chapter 5: Emptiness
This chapter is much darker than the previous chapter, taking a downward plunge into one of the sadder stages experienced after betrayal:
She sleeps all day, dreams of you in both worlds. Grief, sedated by orgasm. Orgasm heightened by grief. God was in the room when the man said to the woman, "I love you so much, wrap your legs around me and pull me in, pull me in, pull me in." Sometimes when he'd have her nipple in his mouth, she'd whisper "Oh my God." That too is a form of worship. Her hips grind. Pestle and water, cinnamon and cloves. Whenever he pulls out, lost. Dear moon, we blame you for floods, for the flush of blood. For men who are also wolves. We blame you for the night, for the dark, for the ghosts.
The song in this chapter is “6 Inch,” a very feminist song featuring The Weeknd. It's about a hardworking woman who is worth every penny that she earns—all by herself. It ends on a despairing note, with Beyoncé’s cracking voice singing softly, “You always come back to me/Come back, come back…”
Chapter 6: Accountability
This chapter features a song that is much different than any of the others stylistically, but lyrically, keeps with the feminist trend. It’s a country song called “Daddy Lessons” about her stormy relationship with her father, who warned her about men, as she sings, “My daddy warned me about men like you/He said, ‘Baby girl, he’s playing you.” The chapter shows clips of Beyoncé as a child with her father, and then as a parallel, her father with her daughter Blue.
Mother dearest, let me inherit the Earth. Teach me how to make him beg. Let me make up for the years he made you wait. Did he bend your reflection? Did he make you forget your own name? Did he convince you he was a god? Did you get on your knees daily? Do his eyes close like doors? Are you a slave to the back of his hand? Am I talking about your husband or your father?
Chapter 7: Reformation
This is the first chapter to turn towards a more positive light, calling to her husband to accept her love and try to heal with her with the dream-like song “Love Drought.”
He bathes me until I forget their names and faces. I ask him to look me in the eye when I come...home. Why do you deny yourself heaven? Why do you consider yourself undeserving? Why are you afraid of love? You think it's not possible for someone like you. But you are the love of my life. Love of my life, the love of my life, the love of my life.
Chapter 8: Forgiveness
We are now officially lowering back down to more peaceful grounds. The hate and heat are fading as we follow Beyoncé on her path to forgiving her husband with the ballad “Sandcastles,” a song all about allowing the old to fade away and instead rebuilding something new.
Baptize me. Now that reconciliation is possible, if we're gonna heal, let it be glorious. One thousand girls raise their arms. Do you remember being born? Are you thankful? Are the hips that cracked, the deep velvet of your mother, and her mother, and her mother? There is a curse that will be broken.
Chapter 9: Resurrection
Although the Black Lives Matter movement is represented all throughout the film, in Chapter 9 is when it is most strongly felt. We see photos of young black men and women who lost their lives due to police brutality, we see their families grieving, with the song “Forward,” featuring James Blake playing.
Something is missing. So many young women, they tell you, "I want me a hu — see, all them make me feel better than you." So how we supposed to lead our children to the future? What do we do? How do we lead them? Love. L-O-V-E, love. Mm-mmm-mmm. Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus. I just love the Lord, I'm sorry, brother. I love the Lord, that's all I got.
When your back gets against the wall and your wall against your back, who you call? Hey! Who you call? Who you call? You gotta call Him. You gotta call Jesus. You gotta call Him. You gotta call Him 'cause you ain't got another hope.
You are terrifying, and strange and beautiful.
Magic.
Chapter 10: Hope
This chapter features Kendrick Lamar on the song “Freedom.” Lamar is well-known for his outspokenness in the Black Lives Matter movement, and this song and chapter are an unapologetic celebration of blackness.
The nail technician pushes my cuticles back, turns my hand over. Stretches the skin on my palm and says, "I see your daughters, and their daughters." That night in a dream the first girl emerges from a slit in my stomach. The scar heals into a smile. The man I love pulls the stitches out with his fingernails. We leave like searchers curling on the side of the bath. I wake as the second girl crawls up headfirst up my throat, a flower blossoming out of the hole in my face.
Chapter 11: Redemption
This chapter is the complete rebirth of Beyoncé and Jay Z’s once-broken relationship, with the song, “All Night.”
Take one pint of water, add a half pound of sugar, the juice of eight lemons, the zest of half a lemon. Pour the water from one jug then into the other several times. Strain through a clean napkin.
Grandmother, the alchemist, you spun gold out of this hard life, conjured beauty from the things left behind. Found healing where it did not live. Discovered the antidote in your own kit. Broke the curse with your own two hands. You passed these instructions down to your daughter who then passed it down to her daughter.
I had my ups and downs, but I always find the inner strength to pull myself up. I was served lemons, but I made lemonade. My grandma said, "Nothing real can be threatened." True love brought salvation back into me. With every tear came redemption and my torturers became my remedy. So we're gonna heal. We're gonna start again. You've brought the orchestra, synchronized swimmers. You're the magician. Pull me back together again, the way you cut me in half. Make the woman in doubt disappear. Pull the sorrow from between my legs like silk. Knot after knot after knot. The audience applauds...but we can't hear them.
In this final chapter, we get personal footage from Beyoncé and Jay Z’s life, and the promise of true love conquering all, of always fighting darkness with light, of not giving up in the face of adversity. When life gives you lemons, make Lemonade.
Overall, this is certainly Beyoncé’s most brilliant work to date, and it definitely won't be her last. With “Lemonade,” Bey has changed the music game, but I highly doubt that that is much of a surprise to anybody.
