We were so blown away by Beyoncé’s performance at the Coachella music festival that we decided to scrap our previous plans and dedicate this week’s entire episode to it. We think her performance will go down in the annals of American pop music as one of the greatest live shows ever.
We close read some of our favorite moments, including her beautiful rendition of the black national anthem, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” and how she turns the swag surf into a dance for royalty. And we talk about the ways Beyoncé continues to shape-shift and grow as an artist, reinterpreting her own musical catalogue and making it richer, more sonorous and more black. We think about the ways black American music has always been misappropriated, and the ingenious way Beyoncé is pushing against that history, making music so skillful it can’t ever be replicated.
Discussed This Week:
“Kendrick Lamar Wins Pulitzer in ‘Big Moment for Hip-Hop’” (Joe Coscarelli, The New York Times)
We're Going Black(er) AKA Dear Woke People
We Watch Trump TV with Emily Nussbaum
We Will Always Love You, Whitney Houston
We Feud About “Feud”
We Relive the Oscars with Barry Jenkins
We Listen to Kendrick Lamar & Talk to Valerie Jarrett
We Go To S-Town
Season Finale with Jordan Peele | Episode 26
Oscars Preview with A.O. Scott | Episode 25
Beyoncé to Baldwin and Back Again | Episode 24
The Women of “Girls” | Episode 23
‘You Only Leave Home When Home Won’t Let You Stay’ | Episode 22
Wesley and Jenna’s Existential Fears | Episode 21
Show Me the (Read) Receipts! | Episode 20
Batman vs. Joker | Episode 19
‘The Perfect Movie for Our Time’ | Episode 18
The Kanye-thon | Episode 17
The Lives They Lived | Episode 16
Best of 2016 with Bill Simmons, Heben Nigatu, Tracy Clayton and Ezra Edelman | Episode 15
Beyoncé vs. Adele? No Contest | Episode 14
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