Once again, Beyoncé has done it, but this time with the aid of her husband.
Yes, Beyoncé and Jay-Z Carter have released a surprise joint album titled Everything is Love. The album was released on Jun. 16, 2018 on Jay-Z’s music streaming platform, Tidal. As usual for the hip-hop superstars, the release of the album created an uproar on Twitter. This writer is in the half of the Twitter-verse that loves the thought of the album.
Everything is Love has nine tracks. The single “APESHIT” was accompanied by a music video that was put onto YouTube right when the album dropped. The music video takes place in the Parisian landmark and museum, the Louvre, at night.
The video oozes black excellence, with the couple depicted as royalty throughout the video’s entirety. Since the video was shot in the Louvre, there were many still shots of famous paintings including an iconic shot of Beyoncé and Jay-Z in front of the Mona Lisa.
The song ‘FRIENDS’ which is track four on the album, is about the people who are in the Carters’ lives. In the chorus, Beyoncé sings, “Gon’ pull me up, pull me up, pull me up, and never let me down.” This is Queen Bey’s allusion that her friends would never do anything to hurt her.
My personal favorite line is, “My friends are goals. Your friends are foes.” In Jay-Z’s part, he shouts-out a group of friends that have been with him since the beginning of his company, Roc Nation. He raps about how they have been with him through thick and thin. This song truly acts as a shout-out dedication to the Carters’ nearest and dearest.
‘BLACK EFFECT,’ another personal favorite of mine, is track eight of the album. It starts with a woman answering the question, “Can you tell us about love?”
This song is a celebration of black excellence. In the chorus, Jay-Z, repeats, “I’m good on any MLK Boulevard,” which is obviously a reference to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Throughout the song, he continues to reference different aspects of black culture like cornrows, false arrest and the Freedom Riders. One hot topic for this track is also cultural appropriation.
Jay-Z says, “They even biting cornrows, put your scarecrows up.” It is believed to be a direct jab at the Kardashians, who have been seen wearing cornrows a multitude of times, despite their lack of African heritage.
In the song ‘NICE’, the Carters brought producing genius Pharrell Williams into the picture and epitomized the musical definition for the phrase, “The world is [their] oyster.”
Beyoncé and Jay-Z then go back and forth saying that they can do anything if they put their mind to it. In the song, Beyoncé references Blue Ivy and says that if she really wanted to, she would put her sixth studio album, Lemonade, on Spotify.
In fact, Everything is Love is on Spotify right now and Lemonade has yet to be put on the streaming service. This song screams, “Haha, we have a ton of money and we don’t really need you,” at audience members and streaming services everywhere, which once again broadcasts that truly successful people do not have to bend to the wishes of others.
Everything is Love is an amazing compilation of musical genius. I suggest everyone listen to it immediately, even if it has been our for several months. The album is available in all streaming locations and for future updates from the Carter couple, you can check out Jay-Z’s service from tidal.com.
