Success tastes sweet, especially when one has hustled for it in a very personal way.
Just ask Beyonce.
Last year’s ‘Lemonade’ was almost unanimously christened “the” definitive music moment of the year, thanks to its compelling lyrics, imagery, and artistry.
Now, it’s emerged that – beyond being the creative force behind the visual LP – Queen Bey was also the financier for the project too.
Details below…
Speaking in an interview with the New Yorker, director Melina Matsoukas expanded on Bey’s role in the Grammy winning project.
Peep an excerpt…
Matsoukas said that Beyoncé paid for the Lemonade film project herself, which writer Alexis Okeowo acknowledges allows “for a kind of artistic control that few black artists have experienced.” As many fans and critics have explored, the film’s themes were explicitly radical but Matsoukas shared the specifics of Beyoncé’s concept:
“She wanted to show the historical impact of slavery on black love, and what it has done to the black family. And black men and women — how we’re almost socialized not to be together.”
The “Formation” video was inspired by Matsoukas’s research into the ideas of writers Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and Octavia Butler, as well as scenes of protest and parade from black American history. “I wanted to show—this is black people. We triumph, we suffer, we’re drowning, we’re being beaten, we’re dancing, we’re eating, and we’re still here.” After Beyoncé approved the treatment, “Formation” was filmed in two days between rehearsals for the 2016 Super Bowl halftime show.
Yet more insight into why Mrs Carter is music’s hardest working women.
Much respect.