Neither Beyonce nor Adele is the hit. Has anyone forgotten her 4 album? It was a fine, but formulaic, project that flopped in year when radio wouldn't play anything but pop and techno. . Beyonce was then savvy enough to leverage her star power for the surprise Beyonce album. The self-titled album had a more organic, experimental feel to it. She went in a different direction musically and did the surprise release to insulate herself from the embarrassment of failure if the album didn't perform to expectations. . Marketing aside, the Lemonade visual album is a pretty good album musically, and some of the messages contained therein were fathoms deep. Beyonce has refound her footing. But she is not the hit -- no one can ever be.