Sunday, 7 February 2016

Video Premiere: Beyoncé - 'Formation'...

Surprise! Beyoncé gets political and capes for her blackness in the new video for her southern super ratchet trap single 'Formation,' which she dropped unexpectedly a few hours ago.
The song was produced by Mike WiLL Made-It and co-written by Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee, while the video was directed by Melina. There might even be a semester's worth of Southern/African American Studies in the visuals, and her message is insightful. However, she has a line in the song that goes, “I like my negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils.”

Shade much? She's so afrocentric yet wears bleach blonde weaves and turns a blind eye to L'Oreal whitening her image in adverts. Not saying she doesn't like being black but I do feel at times she plays up to Hollywood's standard of beauty to gain commercial mass appeal.

Anyway, Jay Z's struggling streaming service Tidal donated $1.5 million to Black Lives Matter and announced its donation the same day Travyon Martin would have turned 21. A day later, Bey drops her Black Lives Matter inspired song and visuals on the eve of her Super Bowl halftime performance with Coldplay.

I appreciate the empowerment nature of the song, but are we just going to ignore that sonically, this is basically another '7/11'?  Add 'Drunk In Love' to the mix as well. The difference being, this song has an actual message. 'Formation' is available for free download on Tidal, and she has also launched her 'Formation Collection' of clothing. Check out Bey paying homage to her Southern roots below.

Thoughts?