As the African-born mother of US-born black children, I am deeply aware of the impact African American pop culture has on them. I freely acknowledge that African American pop culture contributes significantly to the ways in which my children see their world and how they develop a sense of identity. My son immerses himself in hip-hop. My other daughter watches dancer WilldaBeast videos. For Ojurere, it is Beyoncé all the way.
I am willing to wager that my 16-year-old daughter, Ojurere, is Beyoncé’s biggest fan. She has been a devoted fan since the Destiny’s Child days. When Beyoncé coughed at a concert a few weeks ago, Ojurere was delighted. She explained that this very small act of spontaneity added to Beyoncé’s profile as a superstar who was willing to be vulnerable. “It makes her human, Mom,” Ojurere explained when I chuckled. Ojurere is used to my reaction to her “beyhive” behavior, so she plays it up a bit, but underneath our mutual amusement, there is a serious thread of which we are both aware.
As the African-born mother of US-born black children, I am deeply aware of the impact African American pop culture has on them. I freely acknowledge that African American pop culture contributes significantly to the ways in which my children see their world and how they develop a sense of identity. My son immerses himself in hip-hop, closely following the messages and expressions of Chance the Rapper, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar. My other daughter watches dancer WilldaBeast videos multiple times, drawn to the attitude and the power of the choreographer’s work. For Ojurere, it is Beyoncé all the way.
Although my husband and I infuse them with pride and knowledge of their African and Caribbean heritage, I am grateful that they each have an additional medium to help them think about their identities as African/Americans. I tell folks who lack a deep understanding of the complicated experiences of African Americans that if they listen, really listen, to the music, they will gain access to a portal rich in history and culture. So, if I find that my children are particularly enamored of an album or an artist, I pay particular attention.
After “Formation” dropped, Ojurere was on high alert for the coming of the Lemonade album. She invited the rest of us to join her as she watched the HBO special, provided we were quiet and respectful. After convincing me to pay for the album, she studied each track carefully, nodding, singing along, adopting a few new linguistic artifacts. When I wore an outfit she liked, she gushed, “Yes, Mom. Slay!” I was amused, but I also knew, from the quietly assured way she responded to the critical reception on social media, that this album was more significant than any other in Ojurere’s evolution as a young black woman in America.
I think I understand. When the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack came out in 1995, it was the most important musical moment of my own evolution as a woman. Each song was a different influence in my thinking about love, men, and identity. I could sing each song, word-for-word, from Aretha to Brandy, to TLC to Patti to Whitney. And I could tell you why each story in each song communicates something deeply meaningful to me. At the time, I was a young woman in Nigeria, surrounded by other black folks, falling in love with a handsome Nigerian man who became my husband. I am sharply aware that my life is different from Ojurere’s. She is a minority in a culture where black women remain on the bottom of the social ladder. At her high school, the few black girls who go there are least likely to be asked out for prom or on a date. I remember her telling me about a bi-racial young man on the track team who was talking about a hot girl. When she asked him if the girl was black or white, he smirked and said, “White, of course. I said she was hot!” This little encounter made a huge impact on her and on me as a mother. It reminded me that my daughters have to think about their identity in ways that didn’t factor in my own development as a black woman. I know that this is why Lemonade means so much to Ojurere.
Seeking to truly understand its significance, I asked Ojurere to explain Lemonade to me. She sat me down and took me through each song on what she describes as an “outstanding album.” She explained, “This is a concept album, Mom. Each track is an episode in a powerful story about love, war, and the stages of forgiveness. It is mostly told in the first person. Whether it is about Beyoncé or not, it is still a story about a black woman like her, and like me.”
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1. “Pray You Catch Me”
“I’ve grown up thinking Beyoncé has a perfect life. Her Instagram and Twitter are pretty private. So I think many of us have grown up thinking of her as this perfect human being. This is one of the first songs that reveals her imperfection and her life’s imperfection. This is important to her fan base. She’s letting us see her reality through this music and this song. Her character asks if her man is cheating. She’s doubting herself which seems so weird ‘cos she is always so untouchable, unreachable. But here she is, so human. It teaches me a lesson because when she doubts herself, she shows her vulnerability and a warning to her fans that there is strength in vulnerability and that sometimes we hope for things that may not be good for us.”
2. “Hold Up”
“There is still a lot of vulnerability here, similar to ’Pray You Catch Me.’ But she seems to be trying to mask it with an upbeat tune and there is more anger and disbelief. The character values love very highly, viewing it like a currency, but in this song she is comparing her value to others. One of the messages here is that other people’s view of us often makes us feel inadequate, and it makes us compare ourselves to others. I see this is my own life. I find myself asking those questions. Beyoncé is asking those questions. So I’m not alone!”
3. “Don’t Hurt Yourself”
“I think of this as the ’Angry Song.’ What we do to each other impacts us both. I think it is great that we hold our loved ones accountable. There is so much power in this song. She is refusing to be stepped on any longer. There is no limit to love, but there is a limit to how much shit she will take. ‘You aint married to no average bitch.’ This shows how different women will react to their man stepping out. Beyoncé’s character is saying here that if her man steps out, he is hurting himself. There is strength and power in being vulnerable. Vulnerability allows you to look inside yourself and find your own power.
4. “Sorry”
“The feelings from ‘Don’t Hurt Yourself’ bleed into this one. Here she is not even angry anymore. Here she is resigned; she is done; and she is ready to get back to work, to ‘the grind.’ It reminds me of her song ‘Irreplacable.’ She says, at the end of the day, she and her baby will be okay. Her life will go on. And it is at this interesting point that she calls out ‘Becky with the good hair.’ Becky is a traditionally white name. It speaks volumes that a man is stepping out on a black woman and going to someone who seems white. I wonder why? Is this what makes Beyoncé question herself so much. I wonder why black boys prefer white girls so much. I see them in school all the time, and they are always playing with these girls’ hair. I always wondered about this. I know other people think my hair is not ‘good hair.’ It sucks that the way my hair comes out of my head is not considered good by society. Sometimes what you think about yourself is overshadowed by what other people think about you, which takes us back to the doubts expressed in ‘Pray you Catch Me.’ You can say you love yourself and your hair so much, but it is hard to keep this up when the boys you like always go for the girls with the ‘good hair.’ So this is just one phrase, but it says so much. And yet we always see Beyoncé with a weave in her hair. Black women are already amazing, but the hair thing is what is holding us back because we don’t have the confidence. Since Madame CJ Walker, we have been straightening our hair and I think this has damaged us because we always want that – millions of black women straighten their hair, so now, how would we want our hair to be anything other than that. It has created this situation where we are always comparing ourselves to white girls. And when we do relax our hair, it does damage us both physically and mentally. We are never equal if we compare ourselves on the grounds of straight hair. You can rock that afro, but until Google stops showing ‘bad hair’ results as black women with afros, we will continue to struggle to see ourselves as equally beautiful.”
5. “6 Inch”
“This song doesn’t feel personal to Beyoncé because The Weeknd is [featured] on it. But when I think more deeply, this one is a song about the grind that she talks about in ‘Sorry.’ It is also in the third person. But it could be about Bey because this girl works really hard and is pushing herself really hard. This girl seems lonely even though she makes a lot of money. She has no love – there is a darkness in this one. It is a song about success, but at what cost? She calls her love to come back.”
6. “Daddy Lessons”
“In this song the character talks about the advice she gets from her father, who is flawed, but he knows what goes on in the heads of other men. The dad tries to share his wisdom in his own way, passing his knowledge down and making his daughter tough. ‘Daddy made me fight, he wasn’t always right.’ There is mention here of the 2nd amendment. It is an interesting interpretation of gun rights, in this case, to protect herself.”
7. “Love Drought”
“In this song, the protagonist is on the brink of forgiveness. She is trying to argue for the power of love and what is possible. So, whatever we go through, we can make a choice to find a solution; it is just a matter of making the right choices. ‘I’m so tough’ is a statement of realization of her own self-esteem – she is the ultimate catch/gift. I think it is impressive how she can accept that he was unfaithful to her but still can make the personal decision that love conquers all. It is brave because this goes against the grain of what society says women should do or what she had been thinking about in the previous tracks. So she chooses to keep loving and to make the relationship work.The media and society makes it feel that choosing to stay means you are a doormat or a pushover. But it takes a really, really strong person to acknowledge they were hurt, to be vulnerable. It takes an exceptional person to know they could easily walk out but choose to stay. So it may not be ‘feminist’ in the traditional sense of the word. But, to me, feminism is anything that a woman does that is strong, and that is what this character does. She rises above her own pride and chooses to move on. She lets her love choose her path, not her pride. Most women actually can’t do that.”
8. “Sandcastles”
“This is the woman – Beyoncé – ushering in a new kind of love. They built a beautiful marriage that crumbled. ‘I know I promised I couldn’t stay (pride)/but every promise don’t work out that way (love).’ The love that made her stay is a new, more mature love. She let go of that anger and let herself be vulnerable again. I think that is pretty beautiful. This is a raw song. On the visual album, it is my favorite because Jay-Z finally makes an appearance. Being able to forgive someone that hurts you so badly is such a powerful thing. ‘Show me your scars and I won’t walk away.’ In this song, Beyoncé allows her voice to crack. It is an intentional choice. She lets her feelings bleed through in the music.”
9. “Forward”
“This is a short song. I wonder if it is some kind of direct response to ‘Sandcastles.’ I wonder if it is the man in the relationship admitting he wants to move forward?”
10. “Freedom”
“This song is both powerful and political. It was important for her as an icon to finally make her position known on racial politics. Up to this point in her career, she has done well with producing commercial music. This is the first time that she is standing up as unapologetically black. It reminds me of that funny SNL [Saturday Night Live] skit where everyone is surprised that Beyoncé is black. Yeah, this song confirms that Beyoncé is indeed black. Also, to get Kendrick Lamar on this song is sending a message too because Kendrick is a very prominent, outspoken rapper on issues of race and police brutality. Also, in the video, she features mothers of black boys who were killed by the police. I love the line ‘Im’ma keep running because a winner don’t quit on themselves.’ I’ve used it a lot lately. When my track season didn’t go as planned this spring, I told myself this line because I’ve got to keep running, keep training, and, ultimately, that hard work will pay off. This song is also a direct message to the Black Lives Matter movement, that they should not give up, even if there are naysayers who scream back ‘All Lives Matter.’ For the sole fact that we don’t give up, we will be winners. She’s kind of stoking the fire in this song. The quote from her grandma is so beautiful: ‘I was served lemons but I made lemonade.’ I love seeing the thought behind the name of the album, which is so personal on multiple levels. She is using it to encourage a whole group.”
11. “All Night”
“Here, the character is moving on after the reconciliation. It is the make-up song: ‘Trade your broken wings for mine.’ They were both hurt, but he showed her his scars as she asked him to. True love saved them: ‘Our love was stronger than your pride.’ If he hadn’t shown her this vulnerability, if he had not put his pride away, it would’ve been over. But they both made a decision to put the pride aside. ‘True love is the greatest weapon.’
12. “Formation”
“Simply put, this song is saying, ‘Goodbye haters!’ and she is embracing her beyhive. ‘I like my baby hair with baby hair and afros.’ I feel as if this is a reference back to ‘Becky with the good hair.’ She loves her daughter’s hair and tells the haters. It is a great final song against the people who are constantly criticizing her. I am a proud part of the beyhive; even more now because she showed all parts of herself. She let us see the imperfections. I’m glad to have grown up with such a strong female performer. Watching her evolution as an artist has shaped the way that I think about women and power. From ‘Bootylicious’ to ‘Formation.’ ‘Bootylicious’ was a good hit, but in ‘Formation,’ she is not trying to really please anybody. ‘Formation’ sends a strong message, and when artists start sending a message they are really doing something with their art.”
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I can never understand why anyone would dismiss the impact of pop culture. I know my daughter well, and we spend a great deal of time together. But I learned so much about my daughter’s thoughts on empowerment, self-esteem, and love from her analysis of Lemonade. In determining Beyoncé’s impact, I realize that Lemonade is quite different from my own moment of musical epiphany with Waiting to Exhale. It is significant that Beyoncé helped write every track on Lemonade while Babyface almost single-handedly wrote all the songs performed by women singers on Waiting to Exhale. Although I still love that album, I have to acknowledge that those songs are not these songs; that black women narratives of love in 1995 have been re-imagined in this 2016 album. And the fact that all the songs are co-written by the black woman who sings them holds special meaning to my 16-year-old daughter and her 40-something-year-old mother.