Imagine living through a global pandemic and your country’s leader, after years of sowing division between citizens, bullhorns to terrorists that your existence is a threat, and that the lives of the people who share your hue have no value.
Then imagine living with an invisible guard rail. A certain trauma that you can’t always articulate. The trauma is not perceived. It is real. You’ve noticed it before. It is persistent, and it creeps up year after year to no real end. Sometimes it’s heightened, and sometimes it appears in little sizzles.
Okay, then imagine that later on during this global pandemic and racial crisis that one of the most powerful women on the planet releases a film—a VISUAL ALBUM of an under-appreciated soundtrack she also produced for the CGI-heavy, critically-🥴 remake of an animated Disney film based on “The Tragedy of Hamlet.” This woman helmed a Blackity-Black, Black piece of art that re-imagines a fire animated classic, siphoning off a bit of a multi-billion dollar legacy, which is part of a trillion-dollar media conglomerate. The masses have been feasting on “The Lion King” (1994) Thanksgiving turkey since I was four years old.
Yea, imagine that shit…
(MOVE outta the way because talent is traveling)
Bey said, “…gimme this slither real right quick…mama’s got art to make and a tour to plan on THEE CONTINENT…” 🌍
Beyoncé shows and proves, time and again, that her mission is to show the world how WE put on. What WE do. (Warning: my pleonasm is necessary.)
The visuals were specific.
Every detail had purpose.
She gave us Josephine Baker.
She gave us Darine Stern.
She gave us the Afro-futurism from “Yeelen” (1987) during “FIND YOUR WAY BACK.”
She gave us textures.
She gave us Black designers.
She gave us African architecture.
She gave us brothern and sistren enjoying life.
She gave us languages.
She co-wrote, directed, produced this film with BLACK folks.
She 👏🏾puts 👏🏾on👏🏾.
She never seems to miss. It’s just not her thing.
She has the secret recipe Plankton’s been schemin’ ’bout.
Honestly, based on the first trailer, I wasn’t expecting this. Within the first two minutes, she referenced Nina Simone when she narrated “…the color of the my true love’s [skin]…” ANNNNNNDDDD cue the emotions from me. 🥺 🥺
She referenced Busta Rhymes’ “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See” during the break down in the “MOOD 4 EVA” segment. Bruh, I sat right up in my chair. 🙌🏾 🙌🏾
Hearing James Earl Jones’ voice gave me goosebumps. The “Everything the light touches…” line just hits differently.
I appreciated that this film paralleled “The Lion King,” but it wasn’t a 1:1 product. The mission wasn’t to recreate a remake of a remake of the original animated film. “Black is King” is a standalone.
Now, I could discuss the film’s subtext, symbolism, and metaphors all day long, but I wanna get to the imagery.
My personal highlights:
💎 The synchronized swimmers + the human chess board in the “MOOD 4 EVA” segment. 🔥 🔥 🔥The juxtaposition between young Simba (played by Folajomi “FJ” Akinmurele) and Jay was seamless and beautiful. Bless that young man. He was lit! I love seeing little kids enjoy themselves. And the segment featured Simba/Jay’s own Dora Milaje!! Black joy is beautiful, bruh.
💎 The actor featured throughout the film with the turquoise body paint, Stephen Ojo, who portrayed Simba’s subconscious—yea, I’d like to see him in more things. (Please.) Actually, I’d like to see all the featured actors in other projects. Nyaniso Ntsikelelo Dzedze, the actor who played Simba, and Nandi Madida, the actress who portrayed Nala, were gorgeous!!! 😍 😍 😍 More please, thank you!
💎 “ALREADY” was a beautiful segment of the film. The men in the indigo-blue suits jumping in slo-mo took my breath away. So much about this section was breath-taking:
✊🏿 Beyoncé whipping around in the golden ring as the cars drifted in the pit was 🔥.
✊🏿 Shatta Wale and Beyoncé together in the calf-skin scenes. 🔥
✊🏿 The turquoise headdress and dress against the mirrored ground and the men with the turquoise body paint. 🔥
✊🏿 But the moment that warmed my cold, black heart was the scene of group of people waving a version of David Hammons’ African-American flag alongside the Kenyan and Ghanaian flags. That shit tore me up, y’all. I thought about the Door of No Return. It did something at the cellular level. No lie, I made the face Saweetie makes when she eats good food. Nourishment, ya know?
💎 “BROWN SKIN GIRL.” Little, insecure, brown-skinned Erica felt seen. The decision to film this segment with a debutante ball as the backdrop took it to another level. It was invigorating, y’all. The impact of this particular imagery is difficult to articulate because for most of my life—within my family, my career, in pursuit of higher education—women who are hued like me are often disregarded. We’re the afterthought. Not worthy of your praise and whose opinions are invalid on GP. I appreciate Beyonce, a woman with high visibility who has and continues to benefit from her skin complexion, for using this visual album to showcase the depths of us. The beauty in us. The section also included the deeper hued beauty of Asian women, reminding me that the colorist social norms exist across cultures. I’ve had beautiful conversations with friends from Sri Lanka and India who had experienced similar stigmatization within their own communities due to their complexions. I can only imagine what the deeper-hued girls watching this section must be thinking. (If they were anything like me, they were hugging a pillow and crying their eyes out.) I hope little girls and boys watching this film are motivated to lead their lives with confidence, and not with a complex about their skin tone.
💎 “WATER” may have been my favorite of all the visuals. It took me back to my time in Mbabane, Eswatini. The recycled water jugs used for the (VA)mpire Pharrell’s segment were beautiful. And the song is a bop. And, and Salatiel’s voice is gorgeous (as is he). 👀
💎 The features: Jessie Reyez is a presence. That woman is a force. I enjoy her style, music, and unapologetic energy. Her Scar-like appearance in the visuals was appreciated. Tierra Whack is the future. She gets busy. I look forward to her blossoming career. I’m glad Wizkid was featured! I wished other artists featured on the album had also made appearances, but life…
“Black is King” struck a careful balance and tone. I appreciated that the film was not solely performative or ceremonial. It was fun, but serious. It highlighted multiple African cultures, and was shot in various locations around the world, including: Ghana, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the United States. The film highlighted real people, and not every segment featured Bey’s likeness. “Black is King” felt like an important continuation of “APESHIT:” from the Lourve to THEE CONTINENT.
This film was released during a time of racial turmoil boiling over in the States. Protests have been ongoing internationally, our morale is in shambles, and we’re all mentally-fatigued by the current state of the world. Mothers are burying their Black sons at a rate disproportionate to other races in America. “Black is King” was released during a time not long after video footage of a Black man’s neck being crushed by a terrorist in a police officer’s uniform circulated on the internet, si or no?
…not long after a young Black man, out jogging, was murdered for someone else’s entertainment, right?
…not long after an innocent woman was murdered in her bedroom after a no-knock warrant was used to enter her home without warning…
…or when Elijah McClain’s death was unearthed a year following his murder. He was my first thought when I saw the woman playing her violin to awaken Beyoncé during the “MOOD 4 EVA” intro.
WE needed this film’s beautiful imagery. We needed to see ourselves in a way we hadn’t in a while.
Parkwood Productions released a quality product that will live on. I could be hypin’ (I’m not), but I could see this film being added to the Library of Congress as an article of historical, cultural, or aesthetic significance, and highlighted for its amplification of Black culture. Honestly, I could write a course curriculum based on this film with a dense syllabus listing Afro-, Afro-futurism, Blaxploitation, Neo-blaxploitation, and animated films featuring Black characters to discuss each section with reading “Hamlet,” and viewing both “The Lion King” (1994) and “The Lion King” (2019) as pre-reqs. (And I just might💭)
I am proud to lift Beyoncé up as she continues to lead and uplift other artists, especially women. This project is Black joy. The dedication to her son was a cherry on top of a beautiful piece of art.
In conclusion, I continue to Stan. Thank you for the imagery, Beyoncé.