Beyonce presented many messages throughout the song, especially through the visuals where we definitely see it a lot more clearer those messages. But I felt like the main message here that Beyoncé is portraying is Black Lives Matter. I say that because around the time that this came out, Black Lives Matter wasn’t how it is now, more mainstream.
On my initial reaction though, I felt like it had something to do with the racism in the south. Since, she said did name some southern states like Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. So it Could still be that or a part of the message but, I felt like since she has such a big voice and a core fanbase, she’s addressing all Blacks.
Matsoukas vision helped Beyonce a lot to convey those messages throughout the video. Matsoukas is well known for her videos that “retain contemporary hip-hops commercial glamour but feature black women as the heroes”. So, this was in her area of expertise and she found a lot of her ideas through the works of Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and Octavia Butler.
One rhetorical device that I feel that Beyonce used in this song was Dysphemisms. You mainly see this in the chorus of the song, she uses these unpleasant terms giving off a negative effect. An example of this is when she says, “I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros, I Like my negro nose with Jackson five nostrils”. What she talks about here is stereotypical, many associates these things with Black’s.
Another rhetorical device that I feel that Beyonce used in this song was sarcasm. Back to the chorus, when she starts it off, she sounds like she taunting/ insulting someone. We see that clearly when she says, “paparazzi, catch my fly and my cocky fresh”. Celebrities usually hate on the paparazzi, her saying this is ironic.
The song and video became controversial because at the time Black Lives Matter wasn’t fully accepted by the whole world. At the time, racism was still a whole lot more noticeable, especially with trump becoming president around the time this came out. Also, Beyonce mentioned some southern states, which were known as slave states and also still have some racism going on today.
