Throughout these events, Beyoncé's only response to the rumors was a well-worded statement and to flood her Instagram with pictures of herself and Jay Z - with occasional guest appearances from Blue Ivy - looking just as happy and in love as ever. They gained traction again during the infamous Solange and Jay Z elevator incident, in which Solange was caught on video physically assaulting Jay Z in an elevator while Beyoncé stood by without intervening.
The gossip picked up speed during the On The Run Tour, when word on the street was that Jay Z and Beyoncé's marriage would only last as long as the tour did. In the time between the release of BEYONCÉ and Lemonade, Jay Z and Beyoncé have been plagued with many, many, many divorce rumors. Give you some time to prove that I can trust you again." With Lemonade being described by TIDAL as "a conceptual project based on every woman’s journey of self-knowledge and healing," fans everywhere scrambled to figure out if they were watching a symbolic look into the breakdown of Beyoncé's parents' marriage, an hour-long drag of Jay Z through the metaphorical streets, or simply concept art of Beyoncé reminding us all that y'all haters corny with that divorce rumor mess. Today, I regret the night I put that ring on." Suddenly, on "All Night," Beyoncé muses, "So many people that I know, they're just tryna touch ya. It's all over your breath as you pass it off so cavalier." Suddenly, on "Sorry," Beyoncé shouts, "Looking at my watch, he shoulda been home. Suddenly, on "Pray You Catch Me," Beyoncé murmurs that, "You can taste the dishonesty. Kiss, bite, foreplay."įast forward to April 23, 2016, on which Beyoncé dropped an album with a romantic narrative that suggested just the opposite. If you, for some reason, didn't know that Jay Z and Beyoncé were having the sex, then Beyoncé was happy to tell you all about it in such songs as "Rocket," "Blow," and especially "Partition." Even "Haunted" went from musing about how unlikely it was that this album, with its lack of promo and fanfare, would ever do well, to declaring proudly, "You want me? I walk down the hallway. Many of those songs were raunchy, and seemingly autobiographical. And, once they did manage to get their hands on it, critics and fans alike described it as her " sexiest album yet" - for good reason.
No one knew that Beyoncé had an album coming out until it was already available on iTunes, and then the Beyhive proceeded to crash iTunes as fans all tried to download the album at the same time. Whether or not Beyoncé has actually been handed some lemons between BEYONCÉ and Lemonade doesn't take away from the masterful artistry to which she outlines the painful evolution of a marriage in jeopardy.Īs Beyoncé said during her verse on Nicki Minaj's "Feeling Myself," she "changed the changed the game with that digital drop" with the release of BEYONCÉ. So, too, would the message about love, marriage, and commitment that Beyoncé explores on one album incomparable to the message she explores on another. As an artist, her music has evolved as she has evolved, and the Beyoncé of five years ago, of three years ago, of one year ago, is incomparable to the Beyoncé of today. But having followed Beyoncé's career on and off since she was best known as the most talented member of Destiny's Child - and let that debate rage on - there is one thing that I know for sure: Beyoncé does nothing that has no meaning.
What could have caused such a drastically different outlook on love and marriage between the release of one album and the next? Of course, the one question that no one appears to be asking is, well, does it matter?īeyoncé is one of the most notoriously private celebrities in the world, so to what nature her songs are autobiographical is impossible for any fan to guess. If BEYONCÉ could be taken as an ode to the deep, passionate, and sexual love between the Queen and her husband, then can't Lemonade be taken as a way of setting that same relationship on fire? The pop star went from being "Drunk In Love" to being in a "Love Drought," and, despite the nearly three years between her two albums, fans are left with emotional whiplash. Fans of Beyonce's 2013 self-titled album might be left reeling by the the raw anger and pain with which Beyoncé approaches this new subject matter. Did Jay Z cheat on Beyoncé? This is the question heard 'round the world ever since Beyoncé released Lemonade, a visual album that debuted on HBO in the form of an hour long special that studied black culture, black women, police brutality, and the deconstruction and reconstruction of a marriage in the wake of devastating betrayal.