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Beyoncé · S7 E7
The Tradition Behind Lemonade
Nina Simone, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison — the lineage Beyoncé was consciously entering
In the "Hold Up" video, Beyonce emerges in a flowing yellow dress with water cascading around her, recreating a shot that filmmaker Julie Dash composed in 1991's Daughters of the Dust. Beyonce did not invent this visual language. She inherited it.
"Forward" (feat. James Blake) from Lemonade, Beyonce (2016). The mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner hold photographs of their sons. The tradition of Black maternal grief, made visible.
Forward (feat. James Blake) (2016)
"Forward" is barely a song. At just over a minute, it is the shortest track on Lemonade: James Blake's ghostly piano, layered spectral vocals, and Beyonce singing a single phrase on repeat. The restraint is the point. The "Hope" chapter of the film pairs this fragile music with footage of the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner holding photographs of their sons. Listen for the heartbeat-like rhythm underneath Blake's production, a pulse that makes the song feel alive and barely holding on.
TAP TO REVEAL: Why does Beyonce wear the yellow dress?
The Literary Roots
Zora Neale Hurston's 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God follows a Black woman through stages of romantic disillusionment toward self-knowledge in the rural American South. The parallels to Lemonade are structural. Hurston's prose style, blending dialect, poetry, and Biblical cadence, finds its echo in Warsan Shire's narration throughout the film.
Which Yoruba goddess does Beyonce embody in the "Hold Up" video's yellow dress and water imagery?
Black Parade
Released on Juneteenth 2020, "Black Parade" is Beyonce's most explicit celebration of Black heritage, from "I'm going back to the South" to honoring Black-owned businesses and cultural institutions. It channels the same pride in lineage that drives Lemonade.
Lemonade won acclaim from every direction and then lost Album of the Year at the Grammys to Adele's 25. Next: the legacy of Lemonade, and why it matters more now than when it was released.
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