Conversation #2 Language

Summary

The constant message expressed through the song and video is being proud to be black and in black culture and heritage. For example, she says the lyric, "I like my negro nose with Jackson five nostrils." This is showing empowerment in how black people should feel about their natural features. For many years and still, black people are bullied for their, nose, hair, lips, and body. She brings light to have pride in your afro hair and nose, love how you look. It is also seen by her and her dancers having their natural hair loose. From my initial thought of the song and video I knew Beyonce would have message, in her other songs she tends to shed light on certain problems, but I just didn't know specifically what it would be in this video. Matsoukas help convey those messages and themes by creating the scenes in the music video. One of them being in the beginning of the video you see Beyonce on top of a sinking cop car. The message being shown is that police weren't much help to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which majority of the victims were black. One example of emotive language is when she says, "Y'all hater corny with that illuminati mess." She is calling out the people who constantly say she is associated with the illuminati both a hater and corny by using negative emotive words. Another is her using the rhetorical device, hyperbole on the line, "Slay trick, or you get eliminated." I say this hyperbole because of her using the word eliminated which is associated with being killed. But in this scenario, I think it's you have to put in the work or you're not going to make it.