(by Fal-bla-bla)
Much as its unexpected rollout, Beyoncé’s « Renaissance » is remarkably paradoxical.
One month and thirteen days of waiting.
Beyoncé had forcibly reshaped album rollouts, favoring impromptus, making it the norm in the industry, repeatedly depriving her fans of sleep along the way and pushing them to the edge each time she posted on social media.
She then swiftly switched the norm once again and went back to basics: a scheduled drop on July, 29th, merchandising on preorder, photo shoot galore and a cryptic tracklist which kept many a journalist busy all the while.
One month and thirteen days.
And a leak too. Three days ahead.
Paradoxical fans, restless, yet willing to show respect to the Queen by refraining from “sneaking into the club early”.
“RENAISSANCE” is teeming with other paradoxes — rhythmic ones, above all. While its tracks and themes transition seamlessly, each song is riddled with breaches of rhythm, structure, acoustics and atmosphere. Mind how every track opens pianissimo before it ends up in an astounding and jubilant sonic explosion, deceiving and riveting the listener at each turn (with the exception of « MOVE » whose structure is reverted.)
One month, thirteen days (minus three) and a multitude of other paradoxes.
Five of which caught my eyes (and my ears).
Let me walk you through the five paradoxes of Beyoncé’s “RENAISSANCE”.
Paradox 1: An irreverent classic.
« BREAK MY SOUL » said it all: “RENAISSANCE” would be different.
Would Beyoncé forsake her newfound love for trap music, the Miami based hip hop sub genre dealing, at its inception, almost exclusively with drugs? Was it just a fad and would she hit “REWIND” to veer back into the mainstream lane which built her popularity but somehow dwarfed her roots, her authenticity and her true aspirations?
« RENAISSANCE » operates a flashback indeed, but with a further and deeper perspective. Just as “Bday”, whose melodies emulated outdated and sugarcoated r'n'b tunes, Beyoncé’s new highly expected LP claims back her parents’ music, but only to elevate and glorify it.
“RENAISSANCE” humbly bows down and celebrates Black heritage. The album is sprinkled with legendary samples, dosed out ever so sparingly and elegantly (« Too sexy » by Right Said Fred Said, « Center Thy Will » by The Clark Sisters or « I feel good » by Donna Summer).
A musical crucible, it also verges on irreverence, as it mixes almost haphazardly psychedelic disco with ecstatic groove (« VIRGO’s GROOVE »), trap music with afrobeat (« MOVE »), dancehall (« ENERGY » featuring Jamaican artist BEAM) or nineties dance music (« AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM »), alongside recurring nods to house music, whose eighties gay underground flavors pay a vibrant homage to the LGBTQA+ community.
In “RENAISSANCE”, Beyonce impertinently sets the record straight on quite a few occasions, right under the nose of the snotty commentators who feared the album would take the “woke” route, much to their dismay.
Point in case: she defiantly proclaims "They hate me 'cause they want me" (« COZY » ), thus highlighting how paradoxical it is to relish the culture and aesthetics of Black diasporas and to despise them in the same breath, or better yet, to lurk as a bystander in the face of systemic oppression. Beyonce insists: "Cuz them Karens just turned into terrorists", clearly hinting at the events at the Capitol and putting an emphasis on the ambiguity of the role played in the oppression of so-called minorities by overprivileged women who quite paradoxically claim to be both “feminists” and “oppressed”.
Beyonce starkly concludes: "Un-American, I don't need no friends / I been thuggin' for my un-American life lights." (« I'M THAT GIRL ») , hereby distancing herself from the contradictions, hypocrisy and supremacy America is riddled with (but also its forty-fifth president (« voting out 45 »; ENERGY)). To think that those she depicts with such harsh words might overlook the shady jabs and dance carelessly to these tunes, is simply delightful… In America or elsewhere…
Hate to disappoint you, but “RENAISSANCE” is by far Beyoncé’s most militant solo album.
Paradox 2: A decadent yet spiritual masterpiece.
« I'M THAT GIRL » blatantly sets Beyoncé’s agenda right at the top of the album:
" 'Cause I'm in that ho (…)
You know all these songs sound good (…)
'Cause I'm on that ho (…)
Deadass (…)
Freakin' on the weekend
I'm indecent, let it begin. "
The listener is warned: “RENAISSANCE” will be indecent, not for the faint of heart.
It oozes filthy sounds, laced with trap music and laden with outright references to sex (« CUFF IT », « CHURCH GIRL », « PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA », « VIRGO’S GROOVE »), drugs (« I'M THAT GIRL », « CUFF IT », « AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM ») but no rock'n'roll.
The Queen of way-more-than-pop exults mischievously:
"Unapologetic when we fuck up the night, fuck up the night
We gettin’ fucked up tonight
We gon' fuck up the night"
In doing so, Beyoncé preaches feverishly, calling for female liberation, ridded of moral constraints. She diligently praises church girls turned into club girls, as gospel elation gives way to secular exhilaration by way of hyperactive bounce rhythms (« CHURCH GIRL »). Once the following words are uttered, all hell breaks loose:
"I'm warnin' everybody
Soon as I get in this party
I'm gon' let go of this body
I'm gonna love on me
Nobody can judge me but me
I was born free"
In the name of past hardships and of “the fountains of tears” shed, Beyoncé urges her female congregation to free themselves from judgement: to hell with prejudice! Dancing wildly and dressing freely “don’t hurt nobody”, after all.
Spirituality is of the essence although it deliberately leads astray, going as far as taking twerking to the sacred realm:
"You know you got church in the mornin' / But you doin' God's work, you goin' in / She ain't tryna hurt nobody. "
Just as « BREAK MY SOUL », « RENAISSANCE » alludes to the adversity Beyoncé has faced these past three years. Hence, the call for change and the unshakable quest for joy.
Paradox 3: A sentimental ode to lust.
Copyright: Caljin Jacobs for Beyoncé
« RENAISSANCE » transcends the artist’s struggles and what better than an ode to love to do so ? She concedes: "You know love is my weakness / Don't need drugs for some freak shit." (« I'M THAT GIRL »)
« RENAISSANCE » is all about love. Forget about the bitter love portrayed in “Lemonade” and don’t expect her to reenact the sappy declarations of “4”. Those days are long gone. With the exception of « PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA » and « VIRGO’S GROOVE », which overall celebrate healthy relationships based on mutual respect, Renaissance love is a brutal act of annexation, as depicted in « ALL UP IN YOUR MIND » . Beyoncé’s love declaration takes a radically masculine turn and evokes a threateningly boundless sort of obsession, jail or death being the only ways out:
"I try to get all up in your mind
It stops at a crime that I wanna make you mine
I try to get all up in your mind
I'll go and do the time if it means I'll make you mine "
(« j’irai même en prison our te faire mien »)
Carnal innuendos abound, sometimes in contradiction with overly sweet seventies melodies (“Taste me / that fleshy part / I scream so loud” (« VIRGO’S GROOVE »), "He thought he was loving me good / I told him go harder" (« THIQUE »)).
They culminate with « AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM ». whose title must have startled a few white supremacists and which actually is an allegory depicting a transactional and illicit love, supplying ecstasy and heavenly inebriation in lieu of mushy lyricism. Combining trap and dance music, the track samples Kilo Ali’s « (Cocaine) America has a problem » (1990) and draws a dreadful yet blissful parallel between drug dealing and love dealings. In Beyoncé’s words, Eros subtly morphs into Thanatos:
"Your ex-dealer dope, but it ain’t crack enough
I'm supplying my man, I'm in demand soon as I land
Just know I roll with them goons in case you start acting familiar
This kind of love, big business, whole slab, I kill for."
Paradox 4: A selfless ego trip.
The acid trip quickly gives way to a shameless ego trip.
In classical hip hop style, boisterous display of wealth and of ones’s outstanding qualities ensues. Although it seems to bother the holders of generational and iniquitous privilege, it remains the ultimate act of resilience for the oppressed and their offspring. Beyoncé is no exception to the rule:
"Got a lot of bands, got a lot of Chanel on me
I gotta fan myself off (…)
(Like stolen Chanel, put me up in jail) (…)
Got a lot of style, got a lot of Tiffany on me
I gotta fan myself off (Tiffany, Tiffany, Tiffany, Tiffany, Tiffany) "
"Versace, Bottega, Prada, Balenciaga
Vuitton, Dior, Givenchy, collect your points, Beyoncé
So elegant and raunchy, this haute couture I'm flaunting
This Telfar bag imported, Birkins, them shits in storage"
The seemingly shallow material girl goes into a jaw-dropping verbal trance in the last verse of "HEATED", my favorite part of the album. As if to reassure herself, and quite objectively if I may add, she meticulously lists her countless qualities throughout the LP:
"It's not the diamonds / It's not the pearls / I'm that girl"
(« THAT GIRL »)
"She's a god, she's a hero / She survived all she been through / Confident, damn, she lethal" (« COZY »)
"I'm one of one, I'm number one, I'm the only one / Don't even waste your time trying to compete with me"
"Humble like we pon' the come up"
To reassure herself.
And her female listeners too: from “I” to “you” then “we”, she demands self acceptance in spite of society’s limitations and moral straight-jacket.
Paradox 5: Divergent feminism.
Copyright: Beyoncé
Beyonce is a feminist. Indeed. However, her feminism is fierce and, thereby, divergent. It shies away from hackneyed, normative and Eurocentric views and, instead, favors a more ferocious and organic (dare I say “animalistic”) stance. Comfortable in the dark skin which makes her “U-N-I-Q-U-E" as she asserts in « ALIEN SUPERSTAR », but which mostly marginalizes her, she ironically warns: "Humble like we pon' the come up Don't make it turn into trouble 'Cause we comin' straight out the jungle." (« MOVE »), then ends up gloating: "Might I suggest you don't fuck with my sis / 'Cause she comfortable" (an endearing allusion to her sister Solange and to the infamous elevator episode ; "COZY").
Such femininity is straightforward and does away with social constraints.
Black women’s bodies and sultry curves are also normalized:
"Comfortable in my skin
Cozy with who I am"
(« COZY »)
"I been thick, been fine, still a ten, still here, that's all me body positivity"
(« THIQUE »).
They are even depicted as visible signs of wealth in « THIQUE »:
"Ass getting bigger
Racks getting bigger
Cash getting larger."
To put her money where her mouth with, Beyoncé summons a throng of norm and gender-bending icons, namely Grace Jones (« MOVE »), Big Freedia, Honey Dijon, Kevin Aviance, Kevin Jz Prodigy (« PURE ») and TS MADISON, whose notorious « Bitch I’m black » rant is featured in « COZY »:
"They hate me
'Cause they want me
(I’m dark brown, dark skin, light skin, beige Fluorescent beige, bitch, I’m black)"
The recurrence of ballroom and voguing references is quite substantial as it cements the whole project. Gay culture, whose foundations were laid by Black and Brown queers, and who Beyonce is one of the most flamboyant icons, takes center stage in "COZY", "ALIEN SUPERSTAR", "BREAK MY SOUL", "HEATED" and "THIQUE". The opening notes of “PURE” remind the knowing listener of the rallying sound summoning ballroom contenders to start voguing the House down. Beyonce also peppers her lyrics with ballroom lingo (“houses", "categories", "cunt" or "she") and one can only imagine how proud the members of the community and their allies must have felt. As a matter of fact, the final verse of "COZY" artfully paints in words Daniel Quasar's Progressive Pride flag:
"Black like love too deep (...)
Green eyes envy me
Paint the world pussy pink
Blue like the soul I crowned
Purple drank and couture gowns
Gold fangs a shade God made
Blue, black, white, and brown
Paint the town red like cinnamon
Yellow diamonds, limoncello glisterin'
Rainbow gelato in the streets"
Beyoncé will undoubtedly be assailed with accusations of cultural appropriation, which she cunningly anticipated: the whole project is dedicated to her late Uncle Johnny, her very first encounter of a comfortable Black queer man.
All in all, « RENAISSANCE » praises all femininities and most importantly those which bend the norms. They all converge in search of pure Black joy and mingle with an open mind, be it at church or in stripclubs, on dance floors or in cozy living rooms, and simply revel in being nothing but their own selves:
"We dress a certain way
We walk a certain way
We talk a certain way
We, we paint a certain way
We, we make love a certain way, you know?
All of these things we do in a different
Unique, specific way that is personally ours
We just reaching out to the solar system
We flying over bullshit, we flying over"
(Barbara Aan Teer in « ALIEN SUPERSTAR »)
To be continued.
So, what are YOUR thoughts?
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