BET's Clay Cane touted Beyonce's "transformation" and "musical revolution" in a Tuesday op-ed piece on CNN.com. Cane gushed over the pop singer's new album as her "most important piece to work to date," and asserted that she has become a "political goddess" who has "shattered the limits" of expression for black women.
The writer, who is BET's entertainment editor, led his item with his "political goddess" label of Beyonce, and trumpeted that "she has been inching toward this transformation since 2011's album '4', which despite modest sales felt raw, candid, authentically independent and political; it pushed buttons." He continued that the singer "emerged further" with her latest release, "Lemonade," and wondered, "Who knows what sparked her musical revolution. Could it be the advent of social media and the public craving to know personal details of her life? The flood in New Orleans? The drumbeat of police shootings of people of color? The rise of Black Lives Matter? Motherhood?"
Cane disclosed that he was a "one-time Beyonce hater," as "back in the early 2000s, she was everywhere." But he apparently "started to open...[his] closed mind" with the release of her "Dreamgirls" album. He also underlined that with the new album, "she [Beyonce] has opened it completely," as it's, in his view, a vehicle for the rage of black women:
While many are unpacking the visulas of "Lemonade," I was more affected by the feeling of the album. In mainstream media, I have rarely seen the cataloging of black women's pain. The process of pain is not afforded to black and brown women. Your child is shot and killed with no justice, but you are immediately expected to heal and forgive.
There is no agency for rage — indeed if you show it, you are the stereotypical angry black woman. Beyoncé encourages the rage, carries the baseball bat, shatters the car windows, and hauntingly floats in red....Black women are "allowed" to sing the weary blues, but righteous anger of the kind Alanis Morissette or Courtney Love freely exhibit is off limits. Beyoncé has shattered the limits.
The openly-homosexual editor added a further political commentary on Beyonce's new release: "Yes, critics are assuming the album is all about an unfaithful Jay Z. I don't believe it. Beyoncé is tweaking your pop culture, tabloid-fueled expectations. The theme of 'Lemonade' isn't about a man, but black women's relationship with a patriarchal society."
Cane later flashed back to how the pop star once "avoided politics...when she did step into it, we were worried: Her group, Destiny's Child, famously performed for Republican President George W. Bush's inauguration and had many fans giving them the side-eye." He also likened Beyonce to a recently-deceased musician:
Beyoncé grasps a bit of the mystery Michael Jackson and Prince possessed. She rarely gives interviews, never promotes, her lyrics are up for interpretation and any narrative on her life is usually of her own creation....
What I most admire? Beyoncé's "Lemonade" probably won't sell like her previous work. The 11-track album isn't commercial. But if Beyoncé never delivers another hit single again, it doesn't matter. Similar to Prince after "Purple Rain," she is moving forward. Beyoncé will not be restrained by the expectations of her past work. As the journey of "Lemonade" marches on, to quote Queen Bey, "let it be glorious."
