It took me a while to really figure out how I felt about this album. Mostly because I realized that any criticism of Beyoncé might incur the wraith of her fans. I remember when I was a kid we were all terrified of african killer bees, they were coming to America to cause havoc. I realize now that was actually a foreshadowing of Beyonce's rise to power. The Beyhive is strong, fierce, and will take from you everything you love. So after putting my parents in a safe house and burning off my fingerprints, I'm ready to get into it.
Beyoncé is like Storm from X-Men, she has the power to destroy the world with her mood. She can change the season with one well placed thunderclap. Plus she's married to Jay Z who's like the Wolverine of rap, been around forever but has always looked 36.
On this album Beyoncé encapsulates this marvel metaphor as she takes the bright sunny optimism of the spring and replaces it with the cold betrayal of Fall. All while trashing Hov.
Yep, Hov apparently cheated on Beyoncé, and she's not thrilled about it. For about an hour Jay Z gets dragged through the dirt for hurting Beyoncé. It's interesting to see Jay as a Tyler Perry Esque villain, there were a few moments in my mind I saw Jay being hit with Hot Grits and lamenting over his ruined RocNation hat. The dragging is so bad that when people found out Rachel Roy may be the side chick, they attacked her daughter. Shit even Rachel RAY caught a couple strays. You know shit is real when a someone with a similar name gets dragged into some shit (life was never easy for poor lil Adolph Pitler)
Besides this raw emotion, we gotta get into actual musical criticism. This album is really really...ok. Beyoncé experiments with a lot of sounds, influences and variety of ways to call Jay a piece of shit. All of that is great but, it's been done before. Personally I liked Rihanna's album better solely cuz I liked how it made me feel. Rihanna's shit made you feel like you could go to Nordstrom high as shit and ball outrageous. Lemonade feels like you're keying a car in a fur coat.
6 Inch (pause) and Daddy Lessons (double pause) are GREAT experimentations. The Sequencing is fantastic. Ending the whole thing with Formation is a very interesting choice. It feels like we just watched an entire couples fight play out before our eyes. Remember when Jay said that he already wrote the comeback to Ether and it was SuperUgly? Well Jay's response to this song is already out and it's "Ain't No Nigga" from Reasonable Doubt.
This is the soundtrack to that elevator fight and aftermath. Beyoncé's the victim, Jay Z is the accused and Solange is the Music. Meanwhile I feel like the bodyguard who's just here for a check. You ever sit in the backseat of a car while a couple fights in the front? It's like that.
I think that's it, when it's all said and done this album isn't made for me. This isn't an album made for the mindset of a Nigga in his late 20s who watches wrestling and still doesn't fully understand what Cishet means; and that's OK. I feel like a lot of guys aren't gonna react well to this album because they'll as if its an attack on their masculinity.
All in all this is a pretty interesting experience. We lost Prince last week, Mikes been dead for damn near a decade and Stevie Wonder's dreads are falling out left and right; our legends are dying. Luckily, we still have Beyoncé.
I give this 8.5 "it's complicated" Facebook Relation Status's out of 10. 🐝🐝