Dissect - S6E2 - Hold Up by Beyoncé

Episode Date: April 28, 2020

We continue our serialized analysis of Beyoncé’s Lemonade by dissecting it’s second chapter “Denial,” which features the song “Hold Up.” After unsuccessfully attempting to change for her husband’s sake, Beyoncé channels the Yoruba water goddess Oshun to deliver a spiteful message. A visual guide for this episode can be found at dissectpodcast.com. Follow us on social media @dissectpodcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Spotify studios, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. I'm Cole Kushna. And I'm Titi Shodia. Today we continue our serialized analysis of Lemonade by Beyonce. On our last episode, we dissected the visual album's opening chapter Intuition, which features the song, Pray You Catch Me. While the song centered around Beyonce's suspicion of her partner's infidelity, numerous visual elements work to frame her struggle within the historic,

centuries-long struggle of the Black Female Experience in America. Throughout the chapter, Beyonce is seen tepidly walking among the ruins of Fort McComb, an actual relic of the American Civil War, and a visual allusion to the West African castles of the slave trade. Fort McComb seemed to represent the history that Beyonce must eventually confront in order to heal. Midway through the chapter, Beyonce recited a poem adapted from the work of Warsaw Shire. The final lines of this poem are in many ways the third. thesis statement of the visual album. The past and the future merge to meet us here.

What luck. What a fucking curse. Beyonce finds herself at a crossroads weighted with history, with ancestry. The infidelity in her marriage has forced her to confront much more than her partner. It marks the beginning of a spiritual journey of self-discovery and healing. To quote Beyonce directly, I died and was reborn in my relationship, and the quest for self became even stronger. This death seems to be depicted in the closing moments of intuition.

Beyoncé stands on a ledge atop a city building, symbolically removes her hood and jumps. This is her leap of faith, the destruction of the current self that's required to resurrect into something new. This idea is reinforced by the fact that Beyonce doesn't hit the ground, but rather falls into a large, body of water. As she strips from the hoodie while still submerged under water, we're introduced to Lemonade's next chapter, the subject of her episode today, Denial. Closed my mouth more. I'd to be soft, prettier, less awake. Beyonce again recites the adapted poetry of Warsaw Shire. She begins saying, I tried to change. This line actually mirrors the first line of the poem from intuition.

I tried to make a home out of you. In both cases, Beyonce tried and failed, emphasizing the redundancy of her efforts to build a strong, dependable relationship. She continues by describing the specific ways she tried to change, saying, Close my mouth more, tried to be softer, prettier, less awake. Each of these attributes describe a woman attempting to submerge her own identity and intervention. in order to adopt a more subservient role. Closing one's mouth implies silence, a metaphoric muzzle placed on not only her voice, but likely her ambitions, thoughts, and concerns.

Being quote-unquote softer is similar here. Beyonce is abating any agency in a relationship and admonishing herself into submission. Prettier seems to imply an objectified beautification for the sole pleasure of her partner, almost as if she's a toy doll to be played with. Finally, the stanza ends with the phrase, Less awake. She's literally putting herself to sleep, becoming a kind of sleepwalking servant.

The use of the word less here also implies that she's less than herself, her potential, and less than her partner in the relationship. But like so much of Lemonade, we can also find a second reading of these lines if we view them through a more historical lens. In the media,

there are many stereotypes used to depict black women. The three most common are the motherly homemaker known as the Mammy, the whore known as the Jezebel, and the angry black woman known as the Sapphire. The Sapphire comes from the character Sapphire Stevens from the 1950s show Amos and Andy. Now, wait a minute you got Sapphire. I'm going to have this house with you.

Welcome for all, George Stevens. Even though you sit down there and eat that breakfast without complaint, or I go to Chicago with Mama. The term angry black woman has been used in politics with women like Maxine Waters, in sports with athletes like Serena Williams, and in everyday interactions as a way to silence black women by making them feel their reaction to a situation is outsized. It's also the perception that when a black woman is serious, forceful, or simply not smiling,

she's angry, unhinged, aggressive, and threatening. As a result, black women often have to deploy a survival tactic called code switching, where we adopt alternative ways to communicate that are overtly jovial or docile to counter the sapphire perception. So when we hear Beyonce describing closing her mouth more and being less awake, we know she's using code switching in order to be more agreeable and less threatening. During this section of poetry, Beyonce floats underwater, accentuating this general idea of submersion and submission. But at the same time, we see Beyonce strip from the black hoodie, revealing nude color undergarments. In a similar move to her removing the hood just

before jumping from the rooftop, Beyonce stripping away the hoodie represents a step towards transformation. Being underwater also works towards transformation, as water is traditionally symbolic of life, rebirth, fertility, and spiritual cleansing. In this way, Beyonce submerged in water is in direct contrast with her in a bathtub without any water on intuition. And so as Beyonce continues to recite Shire's poetry describing the way she's tried and failed to transform for her partner. We're seeing Beyonce undergo another transformation in real time on screen. Fasted for 60 days. War white. Abstained from mirrors. Abstained from sex. Slowly did not speak another word. Beyonce here alludes to several religious practices simultaneously.

She begins by stating that she fasted for 60 days. Fasting is a common practice in many religions, often for the purposes of spiritual purification or to heighten one's devotion or worship. Next, Beyonce states she wore white. Many religions use white clothing to signify purity, especially during ceremonies like baptism. But given that Beyonce will emerge as the goddess Oshun in just a few minutes, wearing white here might specifically allude to Santa Ria,

an Afro-American religion of Yoraba origin. One of many requirements in a process known as Yawarahi, initiates of Santa Ria are required to wear white for a year, signifying that they are the bride or groom of the Eri-Shah or gods. Another requirement is that they don't look in mirrors, which happens to be the next line in the poem, abstain from mirrors. Next, Beyonce says she abstain from sex, which is often part of religious fasting rituals.

The stanza then ends with the line, Slowly did not speak another word. More religious overtones here, as vows of silence are sometimes involved in certain religious ceremonies or practices. Taken in totality with the beginning of the poem, this sequence continues to express the various ways Beyonce attempted to lessen herself

for the sake of her partner. It's almost as if she's worshipping her partner like a god. By avoiding her own reflection in the mirror and abstaining from sex, she denies aspects of her embodied self, looks outward to seek approval, and represses her sexuality, an essential part of her humanity. And so as Beyonce transitions from closing her mouth more to no longer speaking at all, we see that she's been completely silenced in her marriage. Rather than using her body to enjoy sensual experiences, Beyonce fasts, abstains, and grows

quiet in a denial of her own physicality. While her bodily denial appears to be for the benefit of her partner, Beyonce is also responding to the pressures from the broader white patriarchal society that has devalued black women since her ancestors were degraded and objectified through slavery. While Beyonce describes her previous failed attempts at transformation, we see on screen her actual transformation happening in real time. We find Beyonce still submerged underwater, but she's now found in a spacious bedroom furnished with New Orleans Creel-style furniture. As the hoodie she removed floats away from her body, Beyonce swims toward the large canopy bed. Lying asleep in this bed is another Beyonce, dressed in the same exact undergarments as the

swimming Beyonce. She floats there for a moment, watching herself asleep in bed. With a bed being the place of intimacy, conversation, and rest shared between partners, Beyonce sleeping alone in bed submerged underwater, seems to represent her current role in the relationship. She's silent, still, and as she described, less awake. Now able to observe how her failed attempts at atonement on behalf of her partner has suppressed her individuality and agency, the sleeping Beyonce opens her eyes, looks at her surroundings, and lets out a huge breath.

She's awake now, or perhaps more accurately, she's been reborn. In that time my hair, I grew past my ankles. I slept on a mat on a floor. I swallowed a sword. I levitated, went to the basement, confessed my sins, and was baptized in a river. Got on my knees and said amen. The poem continues to describe various religious practices she underwent to atone for the sake of her partner. At one point, Beyonce describes sleeping on a mat on the floor, once again evoking the initiation process into Santa Maria,

as initiates are to sleep on the floor for the first few months of the 12-month process. Next, Beyonce refers to sword swallowing, a 4,000, year-old practice originating in India by shaman priests who used it to demonstrate power and spirituality. As the poem continues, its pace becomes frenetic. She describes levitating, confessing her sins in a basement, and being baptized in a river. At this point, Beyonce's frantic attempts to atone are beginning to feel a little redundant, almost desperate. This point becomes clear as the next sequence of lines formerly revealed that rather than asking for God's forgiveness and atonement, She's asking for her partners.

feet. This formerly reveals that Beyonce's frantic attempts at religious atonement aren't on behalf of God, but rather her partner. He's quite literally a false idol. She tortures herself like she was his slave, perhaps the most graphic image of the extent of her submissiveness. These dark images continue as Beyonce sacrificially throws herself into a volcano, drinks blood, and sees the devil after crossing herself. It's become quite clear that Beyonce's continual attempts at at atonement. through various religious methodologies are only making things worse for her. The consequences are becoming darker and more sinister, culminating with the poem's final lines. I bathed in bleach and plugged my mincees with pages from the holy book, but still inside me,

coiled deep was the need to know. Are you cheating on me? Are you cheating on me? Beyonce describes bathing in bleach, an extreme attempt to cleanse herself, to make herself pure. Beyonce then describes plugging her mencies, the blood discharged from the uterus during menstruation. Typically, a woman plugs her mencies with a tampon, but in this case, it's the holy pages of the Bible. It's another attempt at purification, but also begs the question, why would menstruation be deemed impure? For those struggling with infertility, menstruation could be seen as a monthly reminder of loss of another failed attempt at pregnancy.

We know infertility is something Beyonce personally struggled with, a theme that will continue to develop throughout lemonade. Like her self-defined failure to be a homemaker and intuition, her attempts to plug her menzies with holy pages seems to be an attempt to atone for her failure to bear a child. It appears she sees herself as both a failed wife and a failed mother. It's also possible she deems her infertility as a part of the curse she spoke of. some cosmic punishment she thinks she must repent for. Beyonce concludes the poem, But Still Inside Me, Coiled Deep, was the need to know, Are You Cheating on Me?

We first noticed the phrase, but still inside me, which implies that all her drastic attempts to avoid, exercise, or deny her intuition have failed her. She describes the question of, Are you cheating on me as something coiled deep inside her, like a serpent waiting to strike? It haunts and motivates her every move. But the fully articulated question makes her partner's infidelity unavoidable,

something she must now confront. And to do that, to battle the serpent, so to speak, she'll not ask God for help. Rather, she'll become a goddess herself. That's right after the break. Welcome back to dissect. Before the break, we found Beyonce desperate for atonement. Her despair seemed to be caused by her belief that she was to blest.

for both her perceived failure as a wife due to her unfaithful husband and her perceived failure as a mother due to her infertility. In her desperation, she became completely submissive, at one point describing herself banging at her husband's feet. Meanwhile on screen, Beyonce is seen inhaling water with her hands clasped in prayer, a shot created by playing her exhales underwater in reverse. At the end of the poem, she is shown swimming out of the bedroom, leaving the old, sleeping, bedridden Beyoncé behind. Next, we get a dramatic shift in scenery. It's daytime now, and we see an exterior shot of what appears to be a large museum. The building bears a striking resemblance to the Fifth Avenue Metropolitan Museum of Art. Remember, it was after the Metgala

that the infamous elevator incident occurred, and its visual citation here seems more than mere coincidence. Indeed, when Beyonce pushes through the building's double doors, she does so in slow motion, powerfully and majestically. She now dons a beautiful, bright yellow Robert Cavali dress, one that would fit right in at the Met Gala. Beyonce stands holding open the double doors and heaps of water gush out from the interior of the building and flood down the grand staircase below her. It appears that Beyonce has completed her metamorphosis, but what exactly has she turned to transformed into. As many scholars have pointed out, there's ample evidence to suggest that she's

channeling Oshun, one of the most powerful gods in the Nigerian Yuraba faith. In modern-day Africa, Yurba land is located in southwestern Nigeria and parts of Benin and Togo. Yuraba people are the largest ethnic group on the continent of Africa. Prior to the importation of Christianity and Islam through the slave trade and European colonization, Yurabai people were primarily guided. and protected by their own religious faith. In this faith, it's believed that the earth was created by the supreme creator, Olu Dumaire, and the Orisha, the gods and goddesses that are often referred to as Olu Dumares' children.

Much like saints in the Catholic religion and gods in the Hindu religion, Orishah are intermediates between the human world and the supernatural. Each orishah has control over specific physical and metaphysical elements on earth. Orishah can be called on by humans in times of war, famine, drought, flood, infertility, frustration, depression, or any other misfortune that requires guidance, protection, or strength. It's likely for this reason that Beyonce has called on Oshun, the goddess of water, fertility, and love, to assist with her current struggles. Oshun is considered the most powerful female Orishah because her fertile waters possess the love and sweetness required for birth. new life on earth. Thus, Oshun is the goddess known best for her sensuality, charisma, beauty, gracefulness, and power to heal with her water. But Oshun, like most Eresha, is complex and not

simply one-dimensional. For instance, she's incredibly dangerous when betrayed and can use her power over water to create floods or droughts when she's angry. Oshun is also said to be perpetually heartbroken due to her proclivity to love with such intensity that it's nearly impossible to find a partner who can reciprocate equally. Thus, beneath her radiant beauty and charisma lies a deep-seated loneliness. Many of these qualities also describe our protagonist, Beyonce, who we last saw emerge from a large building wearing the typical fashions of Oshund, a yellow dress and gold jewelry. As she commandingly pushes open the building's double doors, a huge flood of water comes

rushing out behind her. Beyonce is no longer drowning under water. No, it appears that Beyonce has invoked Oshun and is now in command of the waters. In other words, she's become a goddess herself. They don't love you like I love you. Slow down. They don't love you like I love you. Back up.

They don't love you like I love you. Step down. They don't love you like I love you. As the newly baptized Beyonce descends down the building steps, water running through her bare feet. We hear the old. opening moments of Hold Up, a song produced by Diplo, Beyonce, and Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend. The song makes prominent use of a sample taken from the 1963 song, Can't Get Used to Losing You by Andy Williams.

Guess there's no use in hanging around. Guess I'll get dressed and do the top. Diplo creates a two-measure loop from the song's chord progression and applies a filter to cut out the high end. This type of filtering makes it sound. as if the guitar is playing underwater, which is fitting seeing how Beyonce was actually submerged underwater just a moment ago. Diplo also adds a number of elements to transform this sample from a Kruner Classic to a Caribbean dance hall-influenced soundscape. First, the rhythmic pattern of the guitar part makes use of syncopated rhythms, meaning that the off-beats are accented, a staple of Caribbean music. This is what gives the progression its bouncy, danceable feel. In fact, Dipload is

isn't the first person to recognize this quality in the original guitar part. The UK band, the English Beat, actually recorded a reggae-inspired version of Can't Get Used to Losing You in 1980, which became a top 10 hit. Dipload for his part plays into the syncopated rhythms by adding electronic woodblocks and clavets, rhythmic instruments common in Caribbean music. Less subtle is the track's use of an air horn, which has been a staple of Jamaican dance hall music since the 1970s. Blos Caribbean-inspired beat becomes the backdrop for Beyonce's proclamation of both the love and frustration she's currently feeling towards her partner. This immediately becomes clear with the first performance of the song's hook.

Oh, they don't love you like I love you. Slow down, they don't love you like I love you. Back up, they don't love you like I love you. Step down, they don't love you like I love you. Can't you see there's no other man above you? What a wicked way to treat the girl and Hold Up's hook is actually an interpolation of a 2003 song called MAPS by the band The Yeah Yeah Yeah's. In 2011, some eight years after the song MAPS was released, Vampire Weekend singer Ezra Kainig tweeted a riff on the song's lyrics, changing the word wait in the lyric, wait they don't love you like I love you, to hold up. This phrase remained just a passing tweet for three years.

years. And then in 2014, it became the inspiration for a new song that Ezra and Diplow were playing around with in the studio. Here's Ezra and Diplo's original 2014 demo of what would eventually become the song we know now as Hold Up two years later. Hold up. They don't love you like I love you. Slow down. They don't love you like I love you. Back up. They don't love you like I love you. Step down. They don't love you like I love you. After this demo found you There's no other cat up Of you

After this demo found its way to treat the man who loves you After this demo found its way to Beyonce And her team The song was worked on by a number of songwriters Including Josh Tillman A.k.a. Father John Misty Tillman was sent Diplow and Ezra's original demo to which he wrote

What became the song's first verse and refrain. Something don't feel right Because it ain't right Especially coming up after midnight I smell your seat. And I'm not too perfect To ever feel this worthless How did it come down to this

Calling through your call list I don't want to lose my bribe But I'm gonna fuck me up a bitch Know that I kept it sexy And know I kept it fun It's something that I'm missing Maybe my head for one Once again

Beyonce expresses her suspicion About her partner's fidelity singing Something don't feel right Because it ain't right Especially coming up after midnight She continues with the line I smell your secrets

which recalls the opening line of Pray You Catch Me, you can taste the dishonesty. Both lines utilize synesthesia, a rhetorical device that describes or associates one sense in terms of another. In both lines, Beyonce describes her partner's betrayal as being so potent she can both smell and taste it. Beyonce continues singing, and I'm not too perfect to ever feel this worthless.

Beyonce here directly acknowledges and dismantles her public reputation as a flawless and vulnerable queen. As we'll hear throughout Lemonade, much of this project's power lies in Beyonce's willingness to pull back the curtain and expose herself unlike ever before. Not just in her sadness, but in her anger, grief,

anxiety, uncertainty, the entire bouquet of human emotions. Beyonce continues, how did it come to this? Scrolling through your call list, I don't want to lose my pride, but I'm a fuck me up a bitch. Beyonce expresses disbelief at the behavior she's been forced to resort to,

going through her partner's phone to find concrete evidence of his betrayal. This behavior directly contrasts with the previous track, Pray You Catch Me. There, a timid Beyonce seemed to be going out of her way to avoid finding out about her partner's infidelity. Now, it appears she's not only ready for confirmation, but confrontation. She is ready to fuck up anything and anyone standing in her way. This idea is amplified by the song's visuals that a company hold up throughout the track. Still wearing the Oshun-inspired yellow dress and gold jewelry, Beyonce is seen strolling down a city sidewalk with a kind of carefree gate.

She's confident, she's smiling, and she's carrying a baseball bat. At first glance, Beyonce's bat appears to be branded with the Louisville Slugger logo. But careful viewing actually reveals that the words Louisville Slugger has been replaced with the words Hot Sauce. Of course, Hot Sauce is a callback to Beyonce's song Formation. Lemonade's first single released months before the full album dropped. It's revealed then in the visual album that the hot sauce and Beyonce's bag is not just a connoisse shot out to southern culture. It's the Oshun-like power to destroy her betrayers, a power mostly kept hidden, but there when required. This power is put on display immediately.

Just after Beyonce recites the verse's final line about missing her head, she cocks back the hot sauce bat and smashes in a car window. Immediately, Beyonce is seen with a huge, sinister, and flirtatious smile on her face. This seems to be more evidence that Beyonce is channeling Oshun, as Oshun is often described in folktales as having a malicious temper that's accompanied with an ominous, sinister smile. This duality is reflected in the music too, as Beyonce will take ever more aggressive shots at her partner, but do so beautifully over the song's carefree, almost playful bounce. Indeed, as Holdup

continues into its refrain, Beyonce playfully flips her hair before smashing a yellow fire hydrant. The hydrant explodes, water gushes up into the air and cascades down onto the city street. It would appear that Oshun, the goddess of water, is now on full display in all her complex beauty, wrath, power, charm, and jealousy. Beyonce weighs the catch-22 when considering how to handle her emotions over her partner's infidelity. On the one hand, she could be accused of acting jealous, which implies an insecurity, and thus her suspicions are dismissed as unwarranted paranoia. On the other hand, if Beyonce commits to her suspicions and allows herself to express her anger unrestrained, she'll be deemed crazy, someone unable to control their emotions.

In the end, Beyonce is able to transcend these words, jealous and angry, that are weaponized against women to negate what we feel. She concludes, or like being walked all over lately, I'd rather be crazy. Beyonce decides her intuition and emotional reaction is valid despite the backlash she might receive. And as author Brooke Obie writes for the rumpus, quote, As Beyonce breaks from a colonial understanding of how women are supposed to act and be in order to deserve love and faithfulness from a man, she returns to the forbidden faith of her ancestors, reveling in the West African spirituality that got her ancestors. through. Becoming Oshun allows Beyonce to deconstruct her image of her husband as a God and

start to see God in herself. She channels the strength of Oshund to say, what's worse? Being walked all over lately, I'd rather be crazy. Call me what you will, she says, but you will not take advantage of me anymore. Let's imagine for a moment that you never made a name for yourself, a master wealth, they had you labeled as a king, never made it out the cage, still like that moving in them streets never had the baddest woman in the game up in your shade. Would they be down to ride now? They used to hide from your lie to you, but y'all know we were made for each other, so I find you and hold you down.

Missing, say, oh, love you. They don't love your love your love. With verse two, we get the song's most direct allusion to Beyonce's husband, Jay Z. She compels Jay to consider how women would treat him if he weren't a famous hip-hop star, but rather still a drug dealer in the Brooklyn Prime. projects. Would they be as loyal as Beyoncé's proven to be? Or is the extramarital sex he indulges in only available to him because of his social status and wealth? As Beyonce herself puts it, would they be down to ride? No, they used to hide from you, lie to you.

Beyonce undercuts Jay's ego, seeming to imply that his infidelity is caused by his insecurity with women, an insecurity that developed from how women treated him before he became famous. This is something Jay-Z himself has admitted to in his music, like in the 2001 track, Song Cry. Beyonce's present ability to exert herself and her laser-like perception again marks a stark contrast from the passive, submissive Beyonce we met in intuition. Now reborn, Beyonce is no longer asking dominion at the feet of her man. Rather, she's properly putting her man in check, asserting that

he's not as godly as he may think, and showing that she's had the intelligence to see the chinks in his armor all along. To add insult to injury, she performs this undercutting verse in a rap, almost mocking what made Jay-Z famous. It's as if she's saying, I can do what you do, and do it better. But Beyonce's outward hostility and sarcasm has a larger point attached to it. She concludes the verse, but y'all know we were made for each other, so I find you and hold you down. In other words, Beyonce is saying she's a ride or die. She's saying, I see your flaws, I know who you are inside and out, and I still love you. She's attempting to get through to him the extent of her loyalty and love, which stands in stark contrast with the indulgent, transactional sex he has at random women,

something he only does to fuel his ego and temporarily suppress his insecurities. Beyonce always keep the top tier five-star, sexy loving in the car like make that wood, like make that wood, highly like a boulevard. Beyonce expresses her disappointment in her partner's decision to waste the strength of their love on random women. She defends her own sexual ability as if to say the lack of a sex life at home couldn't be the reason he stepped out. She sings, I always keep the top tier five-star backseat loving in the car. This latter line about having sex in the back of a car is. almost surely a nod to Beyonce's song, Partition. The all of the partition, please.

Like Make That Wood, Holly Like a Boulevard. This seems to be a callback to the song, Drunk in Love. Where on drunken On that wood, Swirving on that big body Where on drunken love, Beyonce played off the wood grain of a surfboard To allude to our partner's arousal

On hold up, she plays off Hollywood Boulevard, a famous street in Los Angeles. But there's an additional layer here When we realize Holly is actually a type of wood And specifically, Cape Holly is a wood Made from Trees in Africa. In this way, Make that wood like Holly

specifically refers to her partner's genitalia. And while we just heard two callbacks to Beyoncé's own discography here in the bridge, we can actually find a third reference when we focus on the drums used in this section. A snare drum plays in double time, which is followed by a drum fill played on what sounds like barrels, a percussion instrument frequently used in bamba music. We compare this to Beyonce's 2011 song Countdown from her album four. I always keep the top tier, five store,

It appears as interpolation of countdown was a strategic acknowledgement of its lyrical content. Because just like Holdup and partition, Beyonce also speaks about being in the backseat of a car and grinding on her partner. Meanwhile, the visuals throughout Holdup continue Beyonce's scorn destruction of a city street. To the amusement and astonishment of witnesses, she smashed. in several more car windows and a random pinata on a street stand, all while smiling and laughing sinisterly. We then see Beyonce being filmed by a security surveillance camera that has apparently been capturing Beyonce's tirade the whole time. This security footage bears a striking resemblance to the infamous elevator tape after the Met Gala. Both are grainy and black and white, and both are filmed

from an identical angle, shooting down and to the left. Like the building from which Beyonce emerged resembling the Met, could the security footage here be a conscious nod to the elevator footage? And if so, perhaps Beyonce's destruction of the camera expresses her frustration around this private and painful moment that was stolen from her and exploited into a public scandal for millions to see. Next, Beyonce approaches a hair salon where there's a wig on display in the salon's front window. Beyonce takes one look at the bobcut wig and smashes in the window. Could she have been triggered by the wig, reminded of her partner's side chick? Could it be a sly nod to Becky with the good hair will meet later in the album? Either way, precisely when Beyonce smashes in the store window,

a fury of fire erupts behind her. This is the first of many explosions that will now accompany Beyonce's swinging bat as her path of destruction intensifies. Ironically, as Beyonce's rage escalates on screen, the music diminishes. Indeed, by the time we get to the song's Outro, Beyonce is all alone. This outro is an This outro is an Superboy's an interpolae

This outro is an Interpolation of Soldier Boy's 2008 track, Turn My Swag on. Channeling Soldier Boys Spride confidence and irrepressible self-esteem makes for the perfect, if unexpected, way to end hold up.

Our protagonist wakes up alone, but not lonesome, abandoned but unafraid, bruised but unbroken. The power her partner once wielded over her has been obliterated. She looks in the mirror at the only person who has her back, affirming to herself and the world that she's enough, that she is a force to be reckoned with, that despite whatever words you call her, she's unwilling now to go quietly into the dark. It's fitting then that Lemonade's next track is its most bombastic, its most high, Hostile, it's most bad ass. Of course, this is don't hurt yourself.

A song will examine note by note, scene by scene. Next time on Dysect. Dysect is a production of Spotify Studios. Remember, you can find visual guides for each episode on Dysectpodcast.com, which also includes links to any articles cited on today's episode. While you're there, be sure to check out our limited season six merchandise, and be sure to say hi on social media at Dysect Podcast. podcast. Today's episode was written by Titi Shodilla and me. Additional analysis by Maggie

Lacey and Michael Bundalo. Additional research by Gail Acosta. Audio editing by Eric Bass and me. Song Recreations by Andrew Atwood. Theme music by Bureaucratic. Okay, thanks everyone. Talk to you next week.