History Music / Lemonade

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lemonade.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''WhenLifeGivesYouLemons'']]

-> ''“Take one pint of water, add a half pound of sugar, the juice of eight lemons, the zest of half lemon. Pour the water into one, then to another several times. Strain through a clean napkin. Grandmother. The alchemist. You spun gold out of this hard life. Conjured beauty from the things left behind. Found healing where it did not live. Discovered the antidote in your own kitchen. Broke the curse with your own two hands. You passed these instructions down to your daughter, who then passed them down to her daughter..."''

''Lemonade'' is a 2016 visual album project by Music/{{Beyonce}}, and her sixth overall solo album.

Inspired by turbulent times in her marriage to Music/JayZ, ''Lemonade'' continues many of the themes discussed on its predecessor ''[[SelfTitledAlbum Beyoncé]]'' -- marriage, motherhood, racial inequality, and so forth, featuring guest spots by Music/JackWhite, Music/TheWeeknd, James Blake, and Music/KendrickLamar.

Led by the surprise release of "Formation" (and its subsequent performance at UsefulNotes/SuperBowl 50, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical which angered many people because of its political statement]]), ''Lemonade'' premiered on April 23, 2016 with a special 60-minute presentation airing on Creator/{{HBO}}, soon being made available for streaming and purchase afterward.

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!! Tracklisting
# "Pray You Catch Me" (3:16)
# "Hold Up" (3:41)
# "Don't Hurt Yourself (feat. Music/JackWhite)" (3:54)
# "Sorry" (3:53)
# "6 Inch (feat. Music/TheWeeknd)" (4:20)
# "Daddy Lessons" (4:48)
# "Love Drought" (3:57)
# "Sandcastles" (3:03)
# "Forward (feat. James Blake)" (1:19)
# "Freedom (feat. Music/KendrickLamar)" (4:50)
# "All Night" (5:22)
# "Formation" (3:26)

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!! ''Lemonade'' provides examples of the following tropes:
* AdultFear: Having your husband cheat on you and how to deal with the aftermath of it, as well as the fear of it happening again, is among the main themes of the album.
* BewareTheNiceOnes:
** In the one hour visual special that came with Lemonade's release, Beyonce is seen singing ''Hold Up'' whilst smiling and skipping through the streets in a beautiful yellow gown until she takes a bat and proceeds to bust up everything in sight--cars, shop windows, fire hydrants, even the cameraman! [[TranquilFury All with a smile on her face.]] And that's only before she gets into the monster truck...uh-oh.
** The segment for ''Don't Hurt Yourself'' in the Lemonade special shows Beyonce getting frighteningly angry as she sings about getting cheated on and [[DontMakeMeDestroyYou warning her lover not to do it again]][[note]]whilst Beyonce hasn't even clarified who she's singing about, it's presumed that she's singing about her husband Jay-Z or her father, Matthew Knowles[[/note]], coupled with a montage of Beyonce angrily confronting the camera, Beyonce in a white wedding dress glaring with a wall of fire behind her, and even throwing a ring at the camera!
** ''Sorry'' marked the beginning of her "Apathy" chapter in the Lemonade special and the song lyrics show Beyonce just really didn't give a damn, going as far as to tell her cheating lover to "suck on [her] balls" because "[she's] had enough".
* TheCameo: Creator/ZendayaColeman, Creator/AmandlaStenberg, Serena Williams, and Quvenzhané Wallis are among the most familiar that show up in the film.
* ClusterFBomb:
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Lemonade'' is probably Beyonce's darkest project ever.
* DearJohnLetter: Referenced in “Sorry”
-->''Left a note in the hallway''
-->''By the time you read it I’ll be far away''
* FreezeFrameBonus: If you look closely at her baseball bat in the "Hold Up" video, it's stamped with "Hot Sauce" on it, giving a whole new meaning to the "hot sauce in my bag" line in "Formation".
* GenreRoulette: ''Lemonade'' can mostly be classified under the umbrellas of RAndB and HipHop, but features tracks that dabble in other genres, like {{Country|music}} ("Daddy Lessons"), AlternativeRock ("Don't Hurt Yourself"), {{Reggae}} ("Hold Up", "All Night"), and Soul ("Pray You Catch Me", "Sandcastles", "Forward").
* SurprisinglyGentleSong: "Pray You Catch Me", "Sandcastles", and "Forward" are noticeably softer than some of the songs surrounding them.
* {{Sampling}}:
** "Hold Up" samples "Can't Get Used to Losing You" by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, and features interpolations of "Maps" by Music/YeahYeahYeahs and "Turn My Swag On" by Music/SouljaBoy.
** "Don't Hurt Yourself" samples "When the Levee Breaks" by Music/LedZeppelin.
** "6 Inch" samples "Walk On By" by written by Isaac Hayes and features an interpolation of "My Girls" by Music/AnimalCollective.
** "Freedom" samples "Let Me Try" by performed by Kaleidoscope, "Collection Speech/Unidentified Lining Hymn" by by Reverend R.C. Crenshaw, and "Stewball" by Prisoner "22" at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
** "All Night" samples "[=SpottieOttieDopaliscious=]" by Music/OutKast featuring Sleepy Brown.
** ''Lemonade'' itself samples "The Court of the Crimson King" by King Crimson in one of the interstitial scenes.
** "Formation" samples, of all things, a "twang" sound from the Creator/HannaBarbera sound effect's library.
* SouthernGothic: Lots of the film's imagery reflects this aesthetic.
* SpokenWordInMusic: The film features snippets of Beyonce reciting poetry written by Somali-British poet Warsan Shire.
* TheUnapologetic: “Sorry” (I ain’t sorry)
** Though [[Headscratchers/{{Beyonce}} it’s not clear]] why Beyoncé [[WomanScorned should be sorry]].
* WhamLine: “He better call Becky with the good hair”
* AWildRapperAppears: Music/KendrickLamar drops a verse on "Freedom," but the album is otherwise devoid of rap breaks.
* WomanScorned: Many --if not ''all''-- of the tracks portray Beyonce in this light, to varying degrees. "Hold Up" and "Don't Hurt Yourself" play it up the most.
* YourCheatingHeart: Jay-Z cheating on her was the main impetus for this album and its themes.
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-> ''“Take one pint of water, add a half pound of sugar, the juice of eight lemons, the zest of half lemon. Pour the water into one, then to another several times. Strain through a clean napkin. Grandmother. The alchemist. You spun gold out of this hard life. Conjured beauty from the things left behind. Found healing where it did not live. Discovered the antidote in your own kitchen. Broke the curse with your own two hands. You past these instructions down to your daughter, who then passed them down to her daughter..."''

[[caption-width-right:350:''WhenLifeGivesYouLemons...'']]

* FreezeFrameBonus: If you look closely at her baseball bat in the "Hold Up" video, it's stamped with "Hot Sauce" on it, giving a whole meaning to the "hot sauce in my bag" line in "Formation".

* MemeticMutation: "You better call Becky with the good hair."

** "Formation" samples, of all things, a "twang" sound from the Creator/HannaBarbara sound effect's library.

'''''Lemonade''''' is a 2016 visual album project by Music/{{Beyonce}}, and her sixth overall solo album.