I saw men joke about how if Beyonce could get cheated on, NO black woman can or should reasonably expect a black boyfriend/fiance/husband. The gender (and to some degree, sexuality) divide of the reactions was the red flag.
But that was just the start of why the 4:44 is so dangerous. It deeply disturbed me, and I remember posting “this is some Beauty and the Beast Stockholm shit”. Intuitively, I picked up on the abusive patterns in both his past actions and current apology. But there was something way more sinister between the lines that I did not quite have words for when I first read the lyrics. So while 4:44 is supposed to read like a grandiose apology and a commitment to do better, it ended up reading like far too little far too late. A man who could have been a father of four, five, or six children vicariously killed them because he did not care enough about their mother. In 4:44 (the track)itself reveals the cause of Beyonce’s rumored miscarriages: His repeated infidelity.
The reactions were shock, awe, and the inevitable “duh, she JUST released Lemonade.” It was a late night talking-pointĪnd then the details came out. Particularly, the attention focused on Jay-Z’s admission of cheating on Beyonce. When 4:44 dropped at midnight on June 30th, the buzz was immediate surrounding. Jay-Z, The Footnotes, and Performative Vulnerability