I’m sure by now everyone has seen/heard the new Beyoncé video/song Formation. If not I will link it but the video is shot in New Orleans and has a very black empowerment vibe on the weekend eve of Mardi Gras. But a question I ask is she being woke or catering to a movement aka fake?

The video starts off her on top of a police car in the water and somebody says “what happened to New Orleans?” and then goes to her inside a Victorian style house where she is dancing and sing rapping. Her daughter Blu Ivy is featured in the video in the middle of two other little girls in a very Destiny’s Child vibe (not in a good way either two dark girls with light little Blu in the middle hello Kelly & Michelle) while her B rhythms the lyrics “I like my baby hair with baby hair & Afro.”

Now B comes from Texas and both her parents are from the south her dad from Alabama and her mom from Louisiana most notably New Orleans which is one of the lines in the song about mixing negro with creole. My dad is from New Orleans and is creole himself I have been there a few times in my life. Don’t really understand how a negro & creole are not both black? I mean yes creole also includes French and Native American but it still a black person in most regards. That’s why white people have Cajun. Yes she might be talking about how she is light because she has creole but my dad is not light light but he is not super dark either and do to my mom coming from LA and having Black, Native American French and Irish in her I am as light as I am. We are still colored at the end of the day creole or black.

She also calls herself a “bama” which if you come from DC or the DMV in general you know that the word at least back in the day was used as an insult. I don’t like that she used that word to describe herself in a good light when the word is meant to tear you down. Taking words like this and the N word and trying to make them hip, cool, slang meaning something good is so stupid and ends up getting people in trouble.

A few lyrics people are talking about besides the Afro line are “I like my negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils”, “I got hot sauce in my bag swag” (made me think of this scene from the Cheetah Girls: http://youtu.be/AFSSeYcdrNw ) and that line about Red Lobster (which your in Nola where the real sea food is why quote that commercial stuff?).

Then she sing raps some more stuff with a group of black women on both sides of her and then the chorus comes on and she says “ladies now let’s get in formation.” She has a scene where her and few women are sitting inside the house having an old school tea party & a scene with her outside the house.

The best scene though is when a little black boy in a hoody is dancing in front of the police and then it cuts to writing on a wall that says “stop killing us” then goes back to the boy and the police and they have their arms in the air. In the end B ends up going under the water with the police car.

One of the co-producers of this song was Big Freddia the Queen diva of New Orleans bounce music who has some voice overs as they pan over some scenes of Nola.

Beyoncé also performed part of this song at the Super Bowl Sunday as well. Her back up dancers were all dressed up like the Black Panthers in salute to them on the 50th anniversary of the BPP. They had Afros and berates on and at one point formed a big X. A lot of people are saying that this performance is woke with ode to Black Panthers and such others are saying that it was just a great performance and didn’t really catch the subtlety and then there are news reporters and politicians saying she wants all cops dead.

*side* Janelle Moane had a Pepsi commercial come on right before the half-time show & as much as I liked her dancing getting her recognition really Pepsi? The old Janelle A. Would not have been dressed like that or 2. Be drinking Pepsi as the black women from Kansas/ATL with her black & white tux from the future. Oh and her colab with her label mates from Wondaland records made a great police brutality song check it out on SoundCloud.

People go crazy everyday if Beyoncé even breaths but I’ve seen even the least interested people like this song/video. I’ve said many times that I hate Beyoncé for various reasons mostly I think she is a terrible role model for young girls and is just seen as a glamorized slut who gets all the praise in the world for it. Jay pimps her out and she is already pimpin out her daughter sad. (Come at me Beehive! I do love Destiny’s Child)

Now I love a good woke song with good lyrics & concepts dealing with all different issues going on in the world. I actually have a whole playlist dedicated to fighting the good fight called Rebel Chants. Anyway that being said I can’t tell if Beyoncé finally is getting it under all that makeup or if this just a marketing ploy.

Since Black Lives Matter was created after the untimely death of Mike Brown in Ferguson many celebrities have been in support of its ideas and concepts of stopping police brutality. Everybody from Kendrick to J. Cole to D’Angelo to Macklemore (which is another issue: https://iceturtlegirl.blog/2014/12/30/american-culture-is-it-an-art-or-appropriation/) and more have made music, visited & donated to BLM and other organizations.

What did B & Jay do? Start Tital and make people pay $20 a month for their stupid streaming service. Now I did hear they had donated a little to the movement a few years ago but nobody herd about it as it was hush hush but B put out a secret album of slut anthems and she is a god the queen. Right before she put out this song Tital finally publicly said they are donating $1 million to BLM. Market ploy? Most likely but at least they are donating.

B’s whole thing that she has been spouting at us for a while through music and interviews is feminism and vegan-ism which if that’s your thing more power to yea I’m down for both. The feminism of course reminds me of her Destiny’s Child days even if she is now uniting women to be sluts and lye on their backs. I just think it’s weird that she is now putting this kind of music out.

I know I’m going to get some hate for even calling her out she’s Beyoncé but I’m allowed my options on her and how she acts and is portrayed by everyone regardless color. It’s funny though how now there are some white people who don’t like this video/song and wish their presses B the only black women they can tolerate (besides Oprah) who makes catchy music about sex would not even have any social commentary on the world just be the dumb sex object.

Now it has become very popular right now to make woke songs about ever social issue going on in the world and some of them feel very genuine like MIA’s Borders on refugees or Alright by Kendrick. But then you have dis genuine songs by artist who don’t and haven’t cared up to this point about anything going on in the world just making woke songs cause it’s cool which you can tell is fake.

I heard this video stole some footage from a documentary on New Orleans that was put out a few years ago and that B did not even write or come up with the concept of the video all the way. The terrible producer Mike-Will Made It (helped Miley Cyrus enough said) and one of the kids from Rae Sremmurd that little new school Kriss Kross with no talent (no offense to Kris Kross love Jump) helped her write the song.

Her sister lives in Nola and I could see her finger prints all over this video and scenery and outfit which I love. I actually kind of wish she either put this song out or was in the video with her sister it would have felt a little more genuine coming from her plus the lyrics would have actually been woke.

One thing I will say has come from all of this is the social commentary people are having because of it which I guess isn’t bad. She did talk about liking our black features which might help the whole not appreciating our features complex that blacks have.

But don’t fall for this just because it seems pro black (in the video) because their are a whole lot of songs and artist that do that a lot better and do it all the time. Also her lyrics only have about two to three “social justice” lines in them the rest is just typical B fluff. Don’t be totally fooled by the video actually listen to the song before it’s the next big social anthem.

I can’t yet tell if this song is fake woke or not I want to believe that she finally gets it but I can’t be for sure. Maybe this is B turning over a new leaf and going more conscious with it but then again maybe she is just tried of the criticism.

I can’t really see this trend staying with her though as we know Jay and her marketing team will probably ring her back in. Saying ok you got their attention now give them what they really want a video of B and Jay having sex and being kinky but of course Blu has to be in the room and it has to have some kind of trap beat mixed with not even any lyrics just a bunch of catchy words people can say that all mean sex. #SurfBoard

Anyway did I like the song/video? It was ok and did have one line that I liked. Do I like B now? You guess (basically no) Will I start listening to her music? I have always liked a few of her songs can’t lie about that.

Anyway until next time Happy Black History Month & Mardi Gras + the 50th Anniversary of the Black Panther Party #StayWoke…