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Thursday, June 21, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS

Ever since “‘03 Bonnie &
Clyde,” Jay-Z and Beyoncé have
wanted you to know two things
about their relationship: They’re
in love and they’re rich. For years
that’s the most they’ve cared to
divulge. They kept their 2008
wedding as hush-hush as pos-
sible and would almost never

be caught publicly without sun-
glasses — Jay often opted to
cover his eyes while they sat
courtside at indoor NBA games.
They popped up here and there
as if to bless us with their pub-
lic presence, but that exterior
appearance was all us normal
people got to witness.
It wasn’t until 2016, with the
release of Beyoncé’s creative
opus Lemonade, that cracks in
the perfect marble sculpture of

the Carters became visible. Bey
not only touched on the social
and political nature of Black love,
but the personal as well; she was
on a quest for self-knowledge in
the face of infidelity. That infi-
delity, Jay-Z’s alone, was nothing
but a tabloid rumor for a couple
years but made headlines with
Lemonade and was only further
made concrete when 4:44 arrived
in 2017. With 4:44, Jay-Z brought
his flaws to the forefront, admit-
ting his guilt and asking for
forgiveness. Who knows what
happened
between
the
two
superstars behind closed doors,

but it seems to them the highest
form of therapy is making music
together. And with the unan-
nounced drop of EVERYTHING
IS LOVE, this unorthodox trilogy
of healing has its final act.
EVERYTHING IS LOVE rep-
resents a synthesis of Beyoncé’s
perfect pop formula and Jay-Z’s
classical brand of rap, but instead
of being the lavish pairing we
have come to expect, it comes
across as a controlled mess. The
couple’s undying love is at the
center of the album, but the music
itself has no heart — there’s no
sonic flow as the tracklist jumps
from a sexy string symphony to
trap-inspired synth banger or
songs that sound less like col-

laborations and more like Magna
Carta Holy Grail or 4 leftovers.
If anything, one of the few
consistent
musical
takeaways
from the album is that Beyoncé
has cemented herself as a good
rapper, sometimes outshining
Jay-Z in terms of technical abil-
ity. She borrows the triplet flow
on “APESHIT,” trades bars with
Pharrell on “NICE” and poetical-
ly chides her husband on “LOVE-
HAPPY.” “You fucked up the
first stone, we had to get remar-
ried,” raps Bey, almost certainly
looking at Jay dead in the eyes in
the booth. In this way, EVERY-
THING IS LOVE comes across
as Beyoncé album that happens
to feature Jay-Z on every track,
as he functions more as after-
thought than equal collaborator.
His contributions are fewer and
further between than those of
his wife, and his verses occupy
the portions of any given instru-
mental at its barest; Beyoncé is
backed by a soulful chorus on
“BOSS” while Jay-Z is left to
work with snare drums and a sin-
gular background vocalist. When
Jay-Z flips off the NFL and tells
them “You need me, I don’t need
you” on “APESHIT,” it’s almost
as if Beyoncé could say the same
to her husband himself.
There’s something off about
this new version of Beyoncé,
though, as she brags about Lam-
borghinis and Patek Philippe
watches on a verse clearly writ-
ten by Offset of the Migos (him
and Quavo lend their ad-libbing
talent to “APESHIT”), and her
flow perfectly matches Pharrell’s
on “NICE,” leaving you wonder-
ing if he just didn’t give her half
of his verse. In fact, there’s this
whole manufactured quality of
EVERYTHING IS LOVE that
makes this meditative masquer-
ade sound artificial. Each song
rests on the shoulders of a veri-
table army of songwriters and
producers: Ty Dolla $ign, Cool &
Dre and Boi-1da, to name a few.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z are so in
control of their public images
that it should come as no sur-
prise they recruited such talent
to bring this album to life. How-
ever, facts like that make this
celebration of their love seem
hollow. The convenient rollout of
EVERYTHING IS LOVE and the
two preceding solo albums, along
with the On the Run II Tour,
makes the inner conspiracy the-
orist in me wonder if the whole
saga of Jay-Z’s affair (except
Solange whooping Jay’s ass in
an elevator) was nothing more
than a carefully crafted public-

ity stunt to drive album sales and
Tidal subscriptions.
Ironically, the best moments of
EVERYTHING IS LOVE comes
when it relaxes its precise focus
on the power couple. Album
highlight “BLACK EFFECT” is a
love letter to their own Blackness
and acceptance of the symbolic
power they have in their commu-
nity. Jay-Z aims to uplift, shout-
ing out “I’m good on any MLK
Boulevard” and demonstrating
the power of unity. The video for
“APESHIT” is similarly empow-
ering; the two have the fuck-you
money to rent out the Louvre for
one night and use it as their per-

sonal artistic playground, juxta-
posing successful Black artists
like themselves and their team
of dancers with perhaps the most
recognizable collection of white
art on the planet. Jay-Z props
himself before The Raft of the
Medusa, a rarity among famous
paintings as a Black man is at
the pinnacle of the composition,
while Beyoncé dances in front of
the Mona Lisa and Winged Vic-
tory of Samothrace, placing her-
self as the new ideal of beauty
among those classical notions.
Yet, without the visuals for
“APESHIT,” the song is noth-
ing more than an elevated trap
anthem, as the lyrics give no hint
of its take on high art. And this
identity crisis is representative
of the whole album itself: While
it attempts to shape Jay-Z and
Beyoncé’s love, success and pas-
sion into a jubilant meditation
on Black excellence, it celebrates
Carter excellence instead. Albe-
it tastefully opulent, EVERY-
THING IS LOVE can’t shake its
extravagant vanity.

‘EVERYTHING IS LOVE’
is an expanse of grandeur

MUSIC REVIEW

SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT

ROBERT MANSUETTI
Daily Arts Writer

EVERYTHING IS

LOVE

Sony Music

Entertainment

Beyoncé and Jay-Z

When Jay-Z flips
off the NFL and
tells them “You
need me, I don’t
need you,” it’s as
if Beyoncé could
say the same to her
husband himself.