Beyonce, Jay-Z release joint album

‘Everything’ marries the styles of two artists

NEW YORK, June 18, (AFP): Music’s most famous couple Beyonce and JayZ pulled a surprise by releasing a joint album, a long-rumored collaboration that celebrates their marital passion and black identity.

The pop diva and hip-hop superstar announced the album, “Everything is Love,” from the stage in London as they wrapped up the British leg that opened a global tour.

The album came out late Saturday exclusively on Jay-Z’s fledgling Tidal streaming service and is not available on Spotify — a far larger platform, which Beyonce disses on the album in a string of F-bombs.

The couple also put out an elaborately choreographed video that takes place inside the Louvre museum in Paris for a song off the album, “Ape…”

The video opens with the couple standing regally in front of the “Mona Lisa” — Jay-Z in a light green doublebreasted suit, Beyonce in a lavender pantsuit — and features a squad of scantily clad dancers moving sensually in front of Jacques Louis David’s “The Coronation of Napoleon.”

Driven by warm, sultry soul with a largely hip-hop cadence, “Everything is Love” marries the styles of the two artists but is more consistent with the recent direction of Jay-Z.

The album shatters any lingering innocence from the early days of Beyonce, with the singer of “Say My Name” and “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” generous in the details of her life with Jay-Z.

The two stars have recorded together previously, notably on the Beyonceled single “Drunk in Love,” but the album comes after an especially public window into their marriage.

Beyonce on her last solo album “Lemonade” in 2016 revealed infidelity on the part of Jay-Z, who a year later asked forgiveness on his own album “4:44.”

Implies

This year, as the title of “Everything is Love” implies, their relationship is apparently swell.

On the final track, the joyously brassy “Lovehappy,” the two acknowledge past pain but also their efforts to reconcile.

of Fame, Dominic Joseph Fontana introduced drums to the concoction that became rock ‘n’ roll at a time that popular singers often eschewed percussion entirely.

“We’re flawed / But we’re still perfect for each other,” Beyonce sings.

As two of the most prominent African Americans in pop culture Jay-Z and Beyonce have played increasingly visible political roles, from campaigning for former president Barack Obama to championing the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Everything is Love” offers a paean to African American identity in “Black Effect,” which opens in Beyonce fashion with a monologue about self-love before a haunting soul sample.

Jay-Z on the song name-checks Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old African American shot dead in 2012 by a neighborhood watchman in a Florida gated community, and raps, in a twist on performers’ rote calls for crowd gesticulation, “Get your hands up high like a false arrest.”

Elsewhere on the album Jay-Z appears to confirm a report that he turned down an offer by the National Football League to perform at this year’s Super Bowl, the most-watched event on US television, with Justin Timberlake ultimately playing American football’s title match.

Jay-Z is an outspoken supporter of Colin Kaepernick, the now-unemployed quarterback whose kneeling protest against racial injustice during the national anthem has triggered angry denunciations by President Donald Trump.

“I said no to the Super Bowl/You need me, I don’t need you,” Jay-Z raps.

“Every night we in the endzone/Tell the NFL we in stadiums, too,” he raps, likely referring to the racial dynamics in American football where almost entirely white owners employ mostly African American players.

The rapper, also known by the nickname Hov, takes aim more directly at Trump on “Salud!”, a song with Beyonce that inexplicably did not make the nine-track album but was released simultaneously.

Making no apologies for his success, Jay-Z raps, “Your president tweeting about Hov like he knows us/ My road to the top was to take what you owe us.”

The album — which came two years after Beyonce revealed Jay-Z’s infidelity

Fontana was a drummer for a radio program in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana when Presley, then performing primarily for country audiences, came in through lyrics — again offers plenty of tidbits into the lives of music’s most famous couple. Here are some highlights: No love child: Jay-Z shot down rumors that he has an illegitimate child. Aspiring rapper Rymir Satterthwaite has alleged for years that he is the superstar’s son due to his mother’s purported fling with the then little-known Shawn Carter in 1992.

“Billie Jean in his prime/For the thousandth time/The kid ain’t mine,” Jay-Z raps on “Heard About Us,” referencing Michael Jackson’s classic song about a paternity case.

Jay-Z and Beyonce’s six-year-old daughter Blue Ivy separately makes an appearance on the album and says “hello” to her twin siblings Rumi and Sir, who turned one on Thursday.

Recovered from infidelity: “Everything is Love,” as the title implies, speaks much about the strength of their marriage after highly public troubles.

Beyonce on her 2016 album “Lemonade” revealed infidelity by Jay-Z, who apologized a year later on his own album “4:44.”

On the joint album’s boisterous closer “Lovehappy,” the two say that they have patched up.

“You did some things to me / You do some things to me,” Beyonce sings with brass in her voice. “But love is deeper than your pain and I believe you can change.”

Angry at legal action: Jay-Z vents frustration several times on the album about legal action against him. Most recently the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered the rapper to testify as part of an investigation into his sale of his Rocawear clothing line.

On “Nice,” Jay-Z denounces the subpoena and suggests he is being targeted because he is a successful African American, wondering why he did not face such scrutiny in his earlier life as a Brooklyn drug dealer.

“Time to remind me I’m black again, huh? / All this talking back. I’m too arrogant, huh?”

Later on the album he professes his innocence in disputes with authorities — so often known by their agencies’ acronyms — as he raps: “I pass the alphabet boys like an eye test.”

1954 after performing on the rival, more established show of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.

Fontana later recalled that the manager of the “Louisiana Hayride” program in Shreveport quipped about Elvis Presley, “’What a funny name . ... He’ll probably never make it with a name like that.’” (AFP)

MOSCOW:

Stanislav Govorukhin,a prominent Russian film director who made some of the nation’s most iconic movies, has died. He was 82.

President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences Thursday to Govorukhin’s family, praising him as a “bright and extraordinary” talent.

Govorukhin’s early work included a 1967 film about romantic mountaineers that reflected the spirit of the 1960s political thaw.

His most famous production was “The Meeting Place Can’t Be Changed,” a 1979 police saga set in the late 1940s, full of strong characters and dark humor.

Govorukhin also acted, famously playing a crime lord in the 1987 cult film, “Assa.”

He had a fruitful political career in the 2000s, serving as a lawmaker and directing Putin’s successful presidential campaign in 2012. (AP)