Queen Bey is slaying the Internet with her newest single, "Formation."
The video, released the day before the Super Bowl, with zero promotion and without fanfare (in signature Beyonce style), is a visual anthem referencing everything from Hurricane Katrina and the Black Lives Matter movement to Beyonce's roots and the black South to high fashion and becoming "the next Bill Gates."
I've watched the video about a dozen times (completely obsessed) and I keep coming back to the same ideas: freedom, resistance, empowerment, feminism, heritage, identity and general badassery. The fashion (Gucci! Fendi! Chanel!), the little boy defiantly dancing before the riot police (moving), the nod to the trans and queer community (visually and vocally, "I did not come to play with you hoes, I came to slay, bitch!").
Fierce, ambitious, unapologetic.
And the poetry is so on-point:
I came to slay
I see it, I want it...
I dream it, I work hard
I'll grind 'til I own it...
Sometimes I go off,
I go hard
Get what's mine, take what's mine
I'm a star
Cause I slay...
Always stay gracious, best revenge is your paper.
Young, gifted and black. (The Cut)
Beyonce and Bruno Mars at the Super Bowl.
