Walt Disney Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock

Beyoncé has never been one to stick to tradition or to announce when she's about to drop something, so it's really no surprise that she just released a 40-track live album called Homecoming in conjunction with her new Netflix documentary.

Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé | Official Trailer | Netflixwww.youtube.com

The album, which dropped at 10 AM on Wednesday morning, is a collection of the singer's greatest hits, ranging from "Single Ladies" to Destiny's Child's "Say My Name." It also includes rarities such as two covers of the hymn often called the Black national anthem—"Lift Every Voice and Sing"—first sung a cappella by an emotional Beyoncé as a lead-in to "Formation," and later by Bey and Jay-Z's daughter, Blue Ivy.

Blue, who recorded the track in the audience at one of her mom's rehearsals, has obviously inherited some of her parents' love of the spotlight; at the end of the song she exclaims, "I wanna do that again because it feels good!"

B7 also features Jay-Z and J Balvin and concludes with a new studio track—a cover of the song "Before I Let Go" by Frankie Beverly and Maze, originally released in 1981 and first covered by Destiny's Child in 1997.

As if the album alone wasn't enough of a gift, it's available on all streaming platforms. On it, you can hear Beyoncé's vocals—silky and flawless as ever—layered over complicated new brass-heavy arrangements and the distant screams of the infatuated crowd. Supercharged with electric energy, it's a straight shot of the empowerment and magnetism that has gained Beyoncé her well-deserved status as an inimitable icon of our times.

June's Diary performs "Lift Every Voice and Sing" live at Royal Farms Arena in Baltimorewww.youtube.com

The album comes as a surprise companion piece to Beyoncé's Netflix documentary, which debuted last night at Howard University and Houston's Southern Texas University—appropriate venues, as her Coachella performance featured a massive marching band and sets inspired by the aesthetics of historically black colleges. It follows her 2018 performance from conceptualization to fruition and features interviews and intimate behind-the-scenes footage.

The critically lauded set marked the first time in the festival's 11-year history that an African American woman headlined it, and 2018 will forever be marked in history as the year of Beychella. But then again, every year is Bey's year—she's been steadily creating extraordinary multimedia works of art for the past decade, with each event—from the Super Bowl to Lemonade—further fortifying her legacy as music's eternal queen, one surprise release at a time.


Eden Arielle Gordon is a writer and musician from New York City. Follow her on Twitter @edenarielmusic.


POP⚡DUST | Read More...

BTS' New Album "Map of the Soul: Persona" is Algorithm-Friendly Nothingness

Anderson .Paak's "Ventura" is Scripture in the Age of Anxiety

RELEASE RADAR: Best New Music for April 12

Photo by Emily Bauman on Unsplash

Queen Bey is not known for following rules or compromising her personal values, and so it's really not surprising that she walked out of a Reebok pitch meeting because the staff wasn't adequately diverse.

According to ESPN's Nick DePaula, she previously turned down a deal with Reebok because no one who would be working on the line reflected her race. "She had a meeting at Reebok and they had a whole presentation of everything, potential products, how this could all look," DePaula wrote, "and she kinda took a step back and said 'is this the team that would be working on my product'?"

When the answer was in the affirmative, Queen Bey reportedly told the pitch room, "Nobody in this room reflects my background, my skin color, and where I'm from and what I wanna do," before walking out.

Her actions will hopefully serve as a wake-up call to Reebok and companies like it, who have to understand that if they want to capitalize on the work and star power possessed by people of color, the very least they can do is provide a staff that features adequate representation. Beyoncé may be famous enough to abandon partnerships like this one, but certainly, not everyone does—so in demanding more diversity, her actions are setting an important precedent.

Instead, Beyoncé will be partnering with Adidas, which announced that it will be re-releasing Beyoncé's activewear line Ivy Park as part of an initiative "aimed at empowering the next generation of athletes and creatives" by "driving positive change in the world through sport." The relaunch "will still respect Beyoncé's ownership of her company which continues her journey as one of the first black women to be the sole owner of an athleisure brand," the press release concluded.

"This is the partnership of a lifetime for me," Beyoncé stated. "Adidas has had tremendous success in pushing creative boundaries. We share a philosophy that puts creativity, growth and social responsibility at the forefront of business."


Eden Arielle Gordon is a writer and musician from New York. Follow her on Twitter @edenarielmusic.


POP⚡DUST | Read More...

Marvin Gaye's "Lost" Album is a Time Machine and a Mirror

Release Radar: 10 Hidden Gems for Spring

Every Time Jameela Jamil Has Taken Down the Kardashians' Toxic Diet Culture