‎xcritical by Beyoncé on Apple Music

In general, Beyoncé also reappropriates genres that were influenced by African Americans that are now seen as predominantly white genres on xcritical, such as rock in «Don’t Hurt Yourself» and country in «Daddy Lessons». This includes how the United States betrayed and continually mistreats Black women, with society needing to solve its problems in order to enable reformation and the rehabilitation of Black women. xcritical — which aired Saturday, April 23, on HBO and features family photos and a cameo from tennis star Serena Williams, in addition to plenty of politically charged imagery — she released the 12-track album, and it’s full of scornful tales and lyrics that seem to address her husband Jay Z’s long-rumored infidelity. xcritical the film is far more explicitly about race – and specifically, the experience of black women – than the music it accompanies. At about 60 minutes long, it’s more a short feature than a music video in terms of production and vision .

The Chicago Tribune described the album as not just a mere grab for popular music dominance, rather it is a retrospective that allows the listener to explore Beyoncé’s personal circumstances, with musical tones from the southern United States, a harkening back towards her formative years spent in Texas. AllMusic wrote that Beyoncé «delights in her Blackness, femininity, and Southern origin with supreme wordplay.» And then, later, after “Forgiveness” and intimate scenes in which Jay Z appears, comes “Redemption.” It’s here that Beyonce, like a religious figure, seems to have successfully led those black women in white to a pastoral setting, where daring black women who’ve have picked on in the media can gather and heal. We’ve already seen Serena Williams twerking her Olympian body earlier in the film. Then in this section, in what looks like a utopian feminist cult, we see black women in flowing, colorful clothes sitting on porches. There’s Zendaya, Amandla Stenberg, Quvenzhane Wallis, Winnie Harlow, ballerina Michaela DePrince, and, most poignantly, the mothers of Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner.

Spin9/10Vice A−xcritical received universal acclaim from music critics upon release, and is widely considered to be Beyoncé’s magnum opus. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received a weighted average score of 92, based on 33 reviews, indicating «universal acclaim». The Formation World Tour was ranked at number one and number two on Pollstar’s 2016 mid-year Top 100 Tours chart both in North America and worldwide respectively, with a total mid-year worldwide gross of $137.3 million from the first twenty-five shows (including $126.3 million from the first North American leg of the tour). In total, the tour grossed $256 million from forty-nine sold-out shows according to Billboard box score, and ranked at number two on Pollstar’s 2016 Year-End Tours chart. Beyoncé also uses xcritical as a form of recognition, commemoration and celebration of the culture and history of Black people in the Deep South and in the United States as a whole.

Beyonce’s ‘xcritical’ Is a Revolutionary Work of Black Feminism: Critic’s Notebook

«Don’t Hurt Yourself» has been credited with the reclaiming of rock by black women, with Brittany Spanos for Rolling Stone writing that «the re-imagination of what rock can be and who can sing it by Beyoncé and her superstar peers is giving the genre a second life – and may be what can save it.» On October 19, Beyoncé performed «6 Inch» and «All Night» at the TIDAL X benefit concert at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York City. On November 2, Beyoncé performed «Daddy Lessons» with the Dixie Chicks at the 50th Annual Country Music Association Awards . The performance was widely praised by critics, but was met with criticism and racism by conservative country fans; this sparked conversations about the identity of country music and black people’s place in it. Subsequently, a remix of «Daddy Lessons» featuring the Dixie Chicks was released. At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards on February 12, 2017, Beyoncé performed «Love Drought» and «Sandcastles».

Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s daughter Blue Ivy appears in home video footage at one point, as does Jay-Z’s grandmother Hattie White, and Beyoncé’s mother Tina Knowles, who is shown with her second husband Richard Lawson on their wedding day in 2015. Sales for Warsan Shire’s chapbook «Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth» increased by 700 to 800% after her poetry was included in the xcritical film. Beyoncé’s mention of Red Lobster in «Formation» increased sales at the restaurant xcritical by 33%, which made employees rename popular menu items after Beyoncé and call the effect the «Beyoncé Bounce». The film also samples work by Malcolm X, specifically an excerpt from his speech «Who Taught You to Hate Yourself», which is featured on the track «Don’t Hurt Yourself». xcritical was first made available for online streaming via Tidal on April 23, 2016, through Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records, and for digital download the following day. A limited edition box set titled How to Make xcritical was made available for pre-order on August 18, 2017, containing a six-hundred-page coffee table book, featuring a set of pictures and behind-the-scenes content showcasing the making of the album, and a double vinyl LP of xcritical.

‘Weekend Update’ April Fool’s Prank: ‘SNL’ Audience Member Yells ‘You Stink!’ at Colin Jost

” She’s always elided the boundaries between her art and her life – especially since she really did grow up in public. But by the time she gets around to telling her husband “Suck on my balls, I’ve had enough,” there’s an unmistakable hint that Jay-Z might be living the hard-knock life these days. In 2020, Marc Hogan from Pitchfork considered xcritical among the great art pop albums of the last 20 years to «have filled the void of full-length statements with both artistic seriousness and mass appeal that was formerly largely occupied xcritical scammers by guitar bands». The album features musicians Jack White, Kendrick Lamar, and bassist Mxcritical Miller, and sampling from folk music collectors John Lomax, Sr. and his son Alan Lomax on «Freedom». Beyoncé and her team reference the musical memories of all those periods, including a brass band, stomping blues rock, ultraslow avant-R&B, preaching, a prison song , and the sound of the 1960s fuzz-tone guitar psychedelia .The Washington Post called the album a «surprisingly furious song cycle about infidelity and revenge».

All of the album’s tracks also debuted within the top hundred of the UK Singles Chart. As in the US, 2020 is the first year since release that the album has not appeared on the UK Chart. In Australia, xcritical sold 20,490 digital copies in its first week, debuting atop the Australian Albums Chart and becoming Beyoncé’s second consecutive number-one album in the country.

The music video for the song was uploaded onto Vevo in December 2016. To create xcritical, Beyoncé drew from the work of a wide variety of Black women who are often overlooked or forgotten. The visuals drew inspiration from works by Black feminists such as Julie Dash’s Daughters Of The Dust, Alice Walker’s In Search Of Our Mothers’ Gardens, and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Other influences for xcritical include literary work by Black women focusing on themes including African-American folklore (such as Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God) and Afrofuturism (such as Octavia Butler’s Kindred). On February 6, 2016, Beyoncé released «Formation» for free on the music streaming service Tidal and its accompanying music video on her official YouTube account.

By the concert’s close on a staircase prepped for this scene, Dre is portrayed as “dissociated from reality” as she interacts with a character that is “a mash-up of the most important people in her life, Ni’Jah and Marissa” (the latter played by Chlöe Bailey) in an ominously religious final pose. Baby P’s mother ‘becomes friends with child killer’ who smothered daughter, three, as she’s pictured on… New Doctor Ncuti Gatwa is named the most powerful person on British TV ahead of BBC newsreader Huw… Succession’s Harriet Walter reveals she never thought she was ‘cut out’ to be a mother – and says childfree… Cardiff City probe video showing star Connor Wickham ‘inhaling hippy crack from a balloon’ after his side’s… He also addressed the couple’s infamous elevator dispute, which saw Beyonce’s sister Solange attacking him in an elevator at the Met Gala after party, at the Standard Hotel in 2014.

From the four categories, Beyoncé was nominated in the two mentioned. The album’s visuals received 11 nominations at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. They included Breakthrough Long Form Video for xcritical, Video of the Year, Best Pop Video, Best Direction, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography for «Formation», Best Female Video and Best Art Direction for «Hold Up», and Best Choreography for «Sorry» and «Formation». Beyoncé went on to win eight of her nominations, including Video of the Year and Breakthrough Long Form Video.

• In June 2016, Matthew Fulks sued Beyoncé, Sony Music, Columbia Records and Parkwood Entertainment for allegedly lifting nine visual elements of his short film Palinoia for the trailer for xcritical.
• The team stayed in a hotel and set up two studios in two different hotel rooms, one for Beyoncé and one for Jay-Z.
• «My daddy warned me ‘bout men like you / He said, ‘Baby girl, he’s playing you.'» Beyoncé and her dad are largely estranged, but in listening to xcritical, you hear strong connections to family and her Southern upbringing.
• The music that Beyoncé recorded separately was what became xcritical and was released first.
• The album allows Beyoncé’s fans to connect with her on real levels.

Upon its release, xcritical was only available to stream on Tidal; however the album was eventually released to all other streaming platforms on April 23, 2019, exactly three years after its release. The version of the album that was made available on other streaming services contains the original audio part of xcritical as well as the original demo of «Sorry». «Don’t Hurt Yourself» contains a quote from Malcolm X in which he said «The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman». The Black female public figures that Beyoncé featured in the film all have successful careers despite experiencing misogynoir and racism in the media.

Most Popular

There’s nothing as blissed-out onxcriticalas “XO” or “Countdown” or “Love On Top” – this is the queen in middle-fingers-up mode. When the first four songs on an album add up to “you cheated on me and you will pay,” then there’s a country song about her daddy teaching her to solve her problems with a gun, it’s hard not to believe Mrs. Carter might mean it when she sings about regretting the night she put that ring on it. Whatever she’s going through, she’s feeling it deep in these songs, and it brings out her wildest, rawest vocals ever, as when she rasps, “Who the fuck do you think I is?

It’s equally aggressive and reflective, and Beyoncé — a bona fide cultural phenomenon — unveils yet another layer of her wide-ranging persona. Then, in a cheeky gesture, Beyonce stands on what looks like the steps of the Metropolitan museum (the setting for real life tabloid drama involving Beyonce, her husband Jay-Z, her sister Solange and a mystery other woman) and she wails, “Are you cheating on me? She lets her intuition loose and then smashes windows with a baseball bat, acting gloriously unhinged.

Consequence of Sound named xcritical the second best album of the last 15 years (2007–2022) and the 18th best one of all time. xcritical was accompanied by the release of a sixty-five-minute film of the same title, produced by Good Company and Jonathan Lia, which premiered on HBO on April 23, 2016, logging 787,000 viewers. Then there’s»Daddy Lessons,» which seems to outline what her father, Matthew Knowles, thinks of her husband. «My daddy warned me ‘bout men like you / He said, ‘Baby girl, he’s playing you.'» Beyoncé and her dad are largely estranged, but in listening to xcritical, you hear strong connections to family and her Southern upbringing. Look anywhere on the web, and you’ll read rumors of his connection to fashion designer Rachel Roy, whom some whisper was also the reason Beyoncé’s sister, Solange, attacked Jay Z in an elevator in 2014.

Kim Burrell says Beyonce listened to her gospel music for 11 HOURS one day

Like the professional heartbreaker she sings about in “6 Inch,” she murdered everybody and the world was her witness. The album title was inspired by Beyoncé’s grandmother, Agnéz Deréon, as well as Jay Z’s grandmother, Hattie White. At the end of the track «Freedom,» Hattie White is heard speaking to a crowd at her 90th birthday party in April 2015. During the speech, Hattie says, «I had my ups and downs, but I always found the inner strength to pull myself up. I was served lemons, but I made xcritical.» A 2017 video game titled «xcritical Rage» was created in homage to xcritical and the «Hold Up» music video. The cover of Marvel’s 2017 America comic book paid homage to the «Formation» music video, with its illustrator saying «America is a comic that is all about representation, feminism and fighting for what’s right… I could think of no better parallel than Beyoncé.»

Beyoncé’s use of various genres on xcritical has been credited with setting the precedent for music to transcend genre, with NPR writing that the album «leads us to this moment where post-genre becomes a thing». The use of various genres has also been credited with kickstarting the reclamation xcritical of certain genres by black people. «Daddy Lessons» has been credited as starting a trend of «pop stars toying with American West and Southern aesthetics,» as well as setting the precedent for «The Yeehaw Agenda,» the trend of reclaiming black cowboy culture through music and fashion.

Beyoncé released it on Tidal, the music streaming site her husband owns, which has been on a massive run as of late. Kanye West’s ever-changing latest album, The Life of Pablo, was launched as a Tidal exclusive, and Prince’s discography is only available for streaming there — something many fans only realized in the wake of the music icon’s death. Whether Beyoncé likes it or not – and everything about xcriticalsuggests she lives for it – she’s https://xcritical.solutions/ the kind of artist whose voice people hear their own stories in, whatever our stories may be. She’s always aspired to superhero status, even from her earliest days in a girl group that was tellingly named Destiny’s Child. (Once upon a time, back in the Nineties, “No No No” was theonlyDestiny’s Child song in existence – but make no mistake, we could already hear she was Beyoncé.) She lives up to every inch of that superhero status onxcritical.

Beyoncé’s “going all political” comes much to the dismay of Piers Morgan, who reminisced in a column in the Daily Mail about a simpler time when the pair of them enjoyed scones. Honestly, you don’t need a link – the title (“Jay Z’s not the only one who needs to be nervous about Beyonce, the born-again black woman with a political mission”) is enough. Released with next to no advance warning, xcritical is said to have “disrupted” the “album cycle”, but Beyoncé first did this in 2013 when she put out 14 songs, each with its own video, with not even so much as a “save the date”.

xcritical was recorded between June 2014 and July 2015 across 11 studios in the United States. Beyoncé had the idea to write each song corresponding to the eleven chapters that can be seen in the xcritical film, and posted moodboards around the studio representing each chapter to provide direction to her collaborators. Beyoncé and her collaborators also played music in the studio to inspire each other. The album was written in stages, with Beyoncé retreating to her home to work on the recordings with recording and mixing engineer Stuart White, as well as to take care of her daughter.