Emily Caplan

Christen Enos
First Year Writing
March 27, 2017
Context Note

The following is a review of Beyoncs album Lemonade, released April 23, 2016, through the lense of

the albums racial impact. The reason this album has come back into relevance is because Adele mentioned the

racial impact of Lemonade at the Grammys this year saying the way [Beyonc] made me and my black friends

feel is empowering and you make them stand up for themselves. Adele said this during her acceptance speech

when she won Album of the Year but chose to share it with Beyonc. This review was written in the style of the

Huffington Post, it is very informal and intended for millennial age liberals. This review is meant for like

minded people who support the Black Lives Matter movement or at least believe in racial equality. The

audience is expected to really enjoy Beyonc and to know somethings about her and some talk around the

album. The audience is not necessarily a specific race but they should be able to make fun of conservative old

white men and should know or care enough to look up words like microaggressions. The persona is informal

and young, much like the audience, and the use of sarcasm and praise makes serious issues like racism more

approachable to an audience that might feel uncomfortable with the topic. The use of hyperlinks is to not only

site but to link to ideas if the audience is confused or does not understand the context.
 How did Lemonade impact Adeles Black Friends?
By Emily Caplan

Beyonce and her backup dancers at Super Bowl 2016 in Black Panther inspired outfits

At the 2017 Grammys this year, Adele made history by essentially Kanye-ing herself. Imma let you finish but
Beyonc had one of the best videos of all time is basically what Adele said when accepting her Grammy for
Album of the Year. While not literally, Adele did make Beyonc, and the world, well up when she said she
could not accept the award explaining, the Lemonade album was just so monumental and so well thought out
and so beautiful and soul-baring. Adele spoke about how the album made me and my friends feel and the way
you make my black friends feel referencing the empowerment behind the album, specifically on black women.
This reemergence in relevance of Lemonade, makes a review of the album and its impact on the world
necessary.

In case you have been living under a rock for the past year, Lemonade is Beyonc Knowles-Carters newest
12-track visual album which details an alleged affair Beyoncs husband, Jay Z, had with another woman.
While we all sat in awe that someone could possibly cheat on a Queen it was also shocking that news of this
scandal had not hit the media. Beyonc used visuals, songs, and monologues to inform us all of an affair, break
up, and reuniting of her and her husband. While the story of heartbreak and reconciliation is told, Beyonc also
used the album to tell the narrative of what it means to be a black woman in America starting with the release of
the song Formation, which dropped the night before she performed it at the 2016 Super Bowl.

Adele splitting her Grammy in half to share with Beyonc

Beyonc added her personalized view of race amidst the Black Lives Matter movement. Her views are made
clear through imagery and lyrics and Beyonc became a powerful voice for the Black Lives Matter movement.
This was and still is extremely powerful and this is what Adele was addressing during her Grammy acceptance
speech when she talked about her black friends.

The problem with having an album that evokes such strong feelings of empowerment and pride is that it causes
old conservative white men to feel like they need to make a response. The second track on the album is Hold
Up, an angry anthem with a catchy tune. To take out her anger on Jay Z for cheating, Beyonc has a bat, and is
smashing cars, cameras, and hydrants with it. A review of Lemonade from conservative radio host Alex Jones
gave us the opinion we never asked for. Jones says Beyonc invokes urban terrorism through songs like
Hold Up because she is smashing cars out of anger. Jones fails to mention that this anger comes from her
cheating husband and bouts it up to be Beyonc influencing black youth to violent. Reviews like this, filled with
sexist and racist microaggressions can and should anger you. Adele said in her speech that Beyonc made her
black friends feel empower[ed] and [Beyonc ] makes them stand up for themselves. This empowerment was
not to go and commit felonies like Alex Jones ignorantly assumes of African-Americans, the empowerment is
to demand respect from the system which Beyonc addresses in her next song, Dont Hurt Yourself.

Hold Up by Beyonc

Dont Hurt Yourself, is a very intense song which is a huge punch in the face to Jay Z. The song states what
we are all thinking you ain't married to no average bitch boy. Who in their right mind would cheat on
Beyonc? She is a goddess. While this song is very intense the most impactful part may be a break in the middle
in which a montage of images of black women is shown with Malcolm X speaking in the background saying:

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.

To explain how much this quote means, a writer on Revealist, Allanah Dykes writes From birth, Black women
are taught that we have to be twice as good as white folks in order to succeed. We are taught that we have to
make lemonade with the lemons we are dealt. This need to be unblemished came from a lack of societal respect,
which Malcolm X beautifully explains in his quote. To believe that Beyonc was trying to invoke urban
terrorism in Lemonade, like Alex Jones suggests, is insulting to those it helped and empowered like Dykes and
Adeles black friends.

The fifth track on this album, 6 inch heels, is about Beyoncs internal reflection about herself and
independent women. This song is about Beyonc filling her and all women's emptiness with self worth. The
disrespect mentioned by Malcolm X is disproven by Beyonc and other strong, hard working black women. The
song refers to she and her speaking to all women who work hard for their money and do not necessarily
need a man to support them.
The sixth song, Daddy Lessons, is Beyoncs reflection on her family and is influenced by both Texas and
Louisiana music styles. This adds to her narrative, adding another struggle which is being a black woman in the
south. Beyonc reflects on lessons taught to her by her father and includes home videos of Beyonc with her
father are shown, as well as a video of her father and Blue Ivy, the Carters child featured multiple times in
Lemonade.

Forward by Beyonc featuring James Blake

The ninth track is a small interlude song called Forward, sung by James Blake. This song plays while mothers
of famous racial profiling turned murder cases, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Oscar Grant, and Eric Garner,
are shown with photos of their sons. This caused a huge response from supporters and from police. Beyonc had
post pictures with the mothers before the release of the album which sparked conversation in the Bey Hive. It
was being called a power move and Beyonc was starting to become the face of the Black Live Matter
movement, but some people did not enjoy this message. Some police officers felt Beyonc was inciting bad
behavior calling Lemonade and the Black Live Matter movement anti-police. Beyonc responded by saying
she was against police brutality and injustice not the officers themselves. With the unjust shooting of these
four young men and many other undignified and unpunished shootings of young black men, injustice is
putting it lightly. Adele saying that Beyonc helped her friends stand up for themselves is why she was
deemed one of the faces of the Black Lives Matter movement.

After Forward, there is a monologue titled Hope. Hope talks about daughter's, specifically Beyoncs
daughters, Blue Ivy and her miscarriage before Blue, of which was sung about in her previous album. Beyonc,
like many African-American women, hopes for a safe and equal life for her daughter which is hard seeing the
contrast of the previous song which we saw pictures of men shot for no better reason than for being black. We
also know it is especially hard since the black woman is disrespected, unprotected, and neglected like
Malcolm X said so hope is a good thing to have.

While the whole album has racial undertones, the tenth and last track are the most obvious. The tenth song is
Freedom featuring Kendrick Lamar. A lot of the last part of the album takes place on a plantation and
Freedom is an anthem for African American empowerment talking about slavery and racial profiling by the
police. Allanah Dykes writes that hearing Beyonc belt phrases like "a winner dont quit on themselves
encourages Black women to be the bosses of their own destinies. This again comes back to Adele commenting
about how Beyonc makes people stand up for themselves. Having a song that talks about how slavery still
impacts us reminds the listener about an issue that the impact can still be seen everyday. Billboard writes that
Lemonade is a narrative of Beyonc moving from isolation to strength through uniting with black women.

After Freedom comes the Redemption Monologue which is also where the album title Lemonade comes from.
A quote from Jay Zs grandmother I was served lemons, but I made Lemonade. When you are born into
challages you cannot control, Beyonc says make the best of it which is why she calls the album Lemonade.

Formation by Beyonc
Last but certainly not least we have Formation, Beyoncs song and video which released a day before her
performance of the song at the 2016 Superbowl. In this Unapologetically Black music video Beyonc
references her family heritage. My daddy Alabama, momma Louisiana / You mix that negro with that Creole
make a Texas bama. Beyonc not only comments on Southern Black culture, but also comments on police
brutality which led to backlash from those who are against the Black Lives Matter movement.

While we have only seen reviews of crotchety old white men reviewing Lemonade, not all white men are the
same. Huffington Post writer Alex Brown wrote the article White Commentary on Lemonade: No One
Asked Us in which he explains:

As a white person, when Beyonc gives you Lemonade,

you sit back and watch black women take over the world.
Both in this article and in the Saturday Night Live skit The Day Beyonc Turned Black it is mentioned this
is not for us. As a white person writing this, I can tell you, not everything is for us and that is okay. Joining and
understanding the Black Lives Matter movement can help you appreciate and understand Beyoncs Formation
video and her performance at the 2016 Super Bowl but you need to understand that the empowerment behind
Formation is not meant for you.

Love Drought by Beyonc

Lemonade tells a journey of self empowerment even after being cheated on. Beyonc hired mostly black women
throughout Lemonade to tell her story. The impact this album had on black women is enormous, through
empowerment like Adele says. The narrative style makes those in the audience who have experienced
disrespect due to race or gender feel like there is hope. Just think though it may be a daily struggle with
identifiers, you can feel better knowing Beyonc believes in you.
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