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Lemonade.. grown-ass woman magic !

When life gives you lemons...

Beyonce sure knows how to make lemonade.

Well I must say before I listened to the album, I wished this post wouldn't be another Beyonce worship story.. But it def is gonna be just that.

You know, I love indie artists. I love raw talent. So Beyonce is not for me. Was not!

This is a newly politicised chapter of her career.

As she says: "It's about lifting up the experiences of black woman, who are largely invisible in this country & the world".

Singing “negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils”, flanked by dancers wearing Black Panther berets, concluding with a Black Power salute.

As a white woman, I won't even try to say that I get the meaning of this all. It is not my place. I am not the audience she made that work of art for.

But I still felt deeply touched and connected to her words, as a woman, a woman who has experienced and felt the pain of betrayal, deceit and infidelity.

The mess of lies, trysts, and betrayal detailed in this network of songs, skits, and spoken-word poetry could blow even the most seasoned of unions into divorce court.

And the digs here are dark and damaging: “He only want me when I’m not there / He better call Becky with the good hair.” “Who the fuck do you think I is / You ain’t married to no average bitch, boy / You can watch my fat ass twist, boy / As I bounce to the next dick, boy.” If Jay Z cheated, Lemonade is a woman scorned, picking over the bones of his good name armed with her rage, her creativity, and a troupe of exceptional black women at her side.

The peace of marital bliss dissipates in the frenzy of “Hold Up,” “Don’t Hurt Yourself,” and “Sorry” as Beyoncé moves from disbelief into vengeance, destroying a city block with a baseball bat and taking a party bus full of girls out on the town while ignoring calls from her husband.

Two collaborations with James Blake play new games with layered vocals and synth textures, particularly in the stately choral runs that introduce album opener “Pray You Catch Me.” “Hold Up” and “Sorry” find inspiration in Caribbean music, even though the source material — bits of Soulja Boy and Yeah Yeah Yeahs lyrics, an assist from Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, and a sample of Andy Williams’s love-struck ’60s pop gem “Can’t Get Used to Losing You” just on the former, for instance — looks far beyond it.

“Don’t Hurt Yourself” employs a snarling Jack White and drums from Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks” to issue a seething, funk-rock final warning to a wandering spouse that’s underscored by a dramatic wedding-ring toss in the video accompaniment.

By the way, if you get the chance, watch Lemonade the film, it is far more explicitly about race – and specifically, the experience of black women – than the music it accompanies.

Beyoncé is still finding room to grow even at what feels like the peak of her powers.

Who is “Becky with the good hair”, cited by Beyoncé as “the other woman” in Sorry – fashion designer Rachel Roy? Rita Ora? Does she even exist? Did Jay Z cheat on Beyoncé?

Truth or Fiction, what seems to be the debate nowadays.. well does it really matters? I say that only a woman who has really experienced deep betrayal can use words so full of rage and passion.

Enjoy:

Anna B.

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