NOW THAT SHE’S GOT YOUR ATTENTION ...
What you should know about Beyoncé’s new album Black Is King
Beyoncé Knowles-carter released Black Is King in the wee hours of Friday morning, roughly one month after publicly announcing that she had shot a companion piece to her original music released alongside the live-action Lion King film last year. The new visual album, streaming on Disney+, is “meant to celebrate the breadth and beauty of Black ancestry,” she stated in that announcement.
The singer researched and worked on the project over the course of a year, collaborating with other Black artists around the globe.
She joined forces with numerous directors to shoot music videos for the tracks from The Lion King: The Gift, and enlisted some of the Nigerian, South African, Ghanaian, Cameroonian and American artists featured in the music to appear in its visual counterpart as well.
For those who haven’t yet caught Black Is King, here’s what to know about Beyoncé’s latest work.
What is Black Is King?
Q
A Black Is King is Beyoncé’s latest visual album, a tapestry of music videos for The Lion King: The Gift, an album accompanying last year’s live-action film. The 85-minute piece draws from the reimagined Disney classic both in its story, loosely following a young boy’s maturation and search for identity, and in the literal sense, featuring voice-overs from Mufasa, Simba and other characters in the movie.
The visual album, which was shot in locales around the world — Disney lists South Africa, Belgium and West African countries, as well as New York, Los Angeles and London — explores the meaning of legacy and celebrates cultures and customs that bring the Black diaspora together: “Black is the colour of my true love’s skin,” Beyoncé says early on. “Coils and hair catching centuries of prayers spread through a smoke. You are welcome to come home to yourself. Let Black be synonymous with glory.”
Certain moments focus on the Black American experience, such as the inclusion of an American flag with its stars and stripes repainted in black, red and green — colours from the Pan-african flag. At one point, a male voice-over comments on an identity struggle experienced by the American descendants of enslaved people from Africa: “When it’s all said and done, I don’t even know my own native tongue,” he says. “And if I can’t speak myself, I can’t think myself. And if I can’t think myself, I can’t be myself. But if I can’t be myself, I will never know me. So, Uncle Sam, tell me this: If I will never know me, how can you?”
Q How can I watch it?
A Black Is King is streaming on Disney+.
Q Did we know this was happening?
A Yes. Beyoncé uploaded a minute-long trailer for Black Is King alongside the June announcement, in which she wrote that “the events of 2020 have made the film’s vision and message even more relevant.
“We are all in search of safety and light,” she continued. “Many of us want change. I believe that when Black people tell our own stories, we can shift the axis of the world and tell our REAL history of generational wealth and richness of soul that are not told in our history books.”
Beyond that message, Disney released a second trailer for the film early last week. The leadup to Black Is King strays from what has become the norm for Beyoncé, an artist who, since surprise-dropping her self-titled album in 2013, has tended to shroud her work in secrecy. The visual albums for Beyoncé and 2016’s Lemonade have been credited with revolutionizing how the music industry approaches releases.
Q Who else had a hand in creating the visual album?
A While Beyoncé is the first director to appear in the credits for Black Is King, she is joined by several others, including
Emmanuel Adjei, Blitz Bazawule, Pierre Debusschere, Jenn Nkiru, Ibra Ake, Dikayl Rimmasch, Jake Nava and Kwasi Fordjour, the last of whom she has collaborated with many times before. (Fordjour and two others, Dafe Oboro and Julian Klincewicz, are described as co-directors.)
Some of the artists featured on The Lion King: The Gift are only heard in the film, such as Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino, others also appear in person. Nigerian singer Burna Boy performs JA ARA E on camera, for instance, as Cameroonian performer Salatiel and American producer Pharrell Williams do with WATER. Ghanaian singer Shatta Wale shows up for the ALREADY video, which Beyoncé also released on Youtube. Nigerian artists Tekno, Yemi Alade and Mr Eazi appear for DON’T JEALOUS ME.
Black Is King is a family affair. Beyoncé’s husband, Jay-z, is featured on MOOD 4 EVA and shows up for that portion of the visual album. Their elder daughter, Blue Ivy, appears throughout — most memorably during BROWN SKIN GIRL, standing alongside her mother, little sister Rumi and grandmother Tina Knowles-lawson. The entire film is dedicated to Sir Carter, Rumi’s twin brother. Lupita Nyong’o, Naomi Campbell and Kelly Rowland also appear for BROWN SKIN GIRL.