Lemons-Water-Sugar

11:01 am this Wednesday morning I finished experiencing Beyoncé’s new visual album “Lemonade.” Since Saturday I’ve been listening to the reviews from various radio personalities and celebrities as well as reading the captions and opinion of my peers. Without ever seeing or hearing the actual album I was able to create some hypothesis about what I was going to experience. I expected to hear about a woman being betrayed and cheated on and I expected to see some mountain moving black girl magic. I was most definitely correct however I experienced so much more from “Lemonade.”

We live in a world where people like their tea served hot, cold, frozen, blended, synthetic, spiked, or spicy it doesn’t matter as long as its served. So most people got caught up in who Beyoncé was talking about, Who is Becky? Was she talking about Jay? Was all of this stuff true? WHO CARES?! All of those questions are irrelevant and its none of our business. In my opinion, what matters is how it made you feel, did anything she said resonate with you , have you experienced similar things, did your imagination paint a picture of the scenes and scenarios she portrayed but with different leading  actors? Did you smell the deceit she spoke of, did you feel the euphoria when “Hot Sauce” smashed in to window of that 1972 Buick Skylark? Do you understand the type of insanity this type of love makes you feel if you say you would be whoever he wanted you to be all he has to do is tell you? How did you feel when you heard the excerpt of a speech by Malcolm X, that acknowledged the plight of Black Woman in America. Were you sad at the realization that you are indeed the most unprotected person in America? How many times did you rewind the video trying to read the “God is God, I am not” that flashed by at 15:15?  These are just some of the many things I wondered and questioned while experiencing “Lemonade.” I felt every beat every word, every lip sync. I wanted more even at 11:37pm I wanted more, just as much as I wanted my sleep I wanted to experience more of this heart-gasm. My adventures in New Orleans flashed through my head, my liver quivered when I heard the accent of the father speaking on his moving experience meeting the president and how it changed his life. The laughter and immediate embarrassment I felt when I noticed myself smiling ear to ear when I heard “Daddy Lesson’s” the first time because I have and still receive some of those same lessons from my Father except his lessons are all accompanied  by explicit language.lol

By the time, “Formation” started to play I rounded out my full plate of emotions feeling proud of her for being transparent and taking a human form for once. It was kinda like the feeling you get after u feel the roller coaster brakes jerk you back because the ride is over, you feel like your glad you did it and excited you didn’t die. Lmao! My biggest beef with this Queen has always been that she never allowed her fans to see her. Like to really see HER, who she is underneath all the costumes, wigs, makeup and waist cinchers . I think its important for a woman/artist/icon of her magnitude to be a human so woman can understand that being like Bey isn’t unattainable. I didn’t feel like she used her powers for good, I didn’t think she was being a feminist or a fighter for the rights of women if she won’t let her fans think she was just like them. I hated the fact that she wouldn’t admit to having help carrying Blue, its so many women that have the same problem and cant afford to hire help. I thought she had an opportunity to queen and she didn’t because she just couldn’t be normal, vulnerable, or broken. However, I can honestly say I am proud of her for exposing the most important part of her which is her SELF. Her maturation into a role model and an activist is my most favorite thing to love about Beyoncé, I didn’t have this before. Life will always serve us some Lemons, I’m happy I was given some recipes so I can put them to use.

-J

“Lemonade”

Tidal

tidal.com/playlist/cb4d7b94-b0fd-4e77-b3ae-cdc32138bd53

Itunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/lemonade/id1107429221