Lemonade Series: On the surface...
/YAAASSSSSSSSSSSS Beyonce', YAAAAAASSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!
[Insert 12 bees, 5 hand claps, the flamenco dancer, and 6 yellow heart emojis here]
Call me a forgetful fan, but I totally forgot about the HBO debut of Lemonade on Saturday night. Instead, I watched an episode of 48 Hours, where an emotionally unstable recent college grad murdered her on-again-off-again, much older, lawyer boyfriend who strung her along, despite their extremely volatile relationship. She shot him in the face, then claimed self defense. Interesting episode, actually. It's both sad and funny how people react to a broken heart... the girl on 48 Hours ended her partner's life, while Beyonce' blessed us with another fantastic visual album.
Amazing how that works. Anywhoo...
On Sunday morning, I awoke to find my timeline flooded with Lemonade posts... I had to watch it ASAP!!! Thank God and Fios for HBO GO. With my trusty over-sized coffee mug in hand and still in my pjs, I plopped down on the couch to catch up to the rest of the world. My thoughts during my first viewing of Lemonade were as follows:
1. This is music for real-life. Infidelity, anger, apathy, vows, father/daughter dynamics, loss, children, career, sisterhood, fun (Serena twerks while mouthing "Boy Bye"... to Drake, perhaps?) , motherhood, unity, strength, all tied with that string called love. It's all there, honest, and raw, and grown up.
2. This is art. The cinematography, the progression from beginning to end, the fashion, the poetry, and everything in between was beautiful and sincere to womanhood, blackness, family ties, and the joy and pain therein.
3. Look at all the cameos!! Jigga my n**** (we'll get to him later), Serena Williams, Quvenzhane' Wallis, Zendaya Coleman, Sabrina Fulton (Trayvon Martin's mother), and several others within the visual portion, but also the Weeknd, Jack White, and Kendrick Lamar are heard in the music. So many moments had me cheering in my seat (again, Serena twerks), or fighting back tears, especially as Mike Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, wiped tears as she represented for her son.
4. This is so what we needed!!! This week sucked. Prince died. I still can't bring myself to listen to the tributes because I'm just not ready. My hope is that wherever Prince is, he is proud of Beyonce's latest contribution to music. I think he would really like "Freedom".
5. Work Bey, just WORK!!!! People talk a lot of trash about Beyonce', I used to be one of those people years ago. However, there is one thing that we can all agree upon, that girl works her ass off. Period. Her song "6 Inch" is a smooth anthem for us girls who love the grind like she obviously does. When it's all said and done, Beyonce' will go down as one of the greatest performers of all time. She's earned it time and time again. Don't debate me, bro, it is what it is. Go girl.
I have so much more to say about this 1 hour opus called Lemonade. There will definitely be more to come, as there is much, much more to Lemonade than what we see on the surface. Overall, I'm so glad this release is getting the attention it deserves. So glad.
What did you think about Lemonade? Let's talk about it!!
Love, Tev