BLACK PARADE by Beyoncé.

An analysis thread.

The song is produced by Beyonce & Derek Dixie, her longtime collaborator who served as music director for Homecoming and co-producer of many Bey songs.

Black Parade was released on June 19 or Juneteenth. On this day in 1865, Union troops announced the end of slavery in Galveston, TX, the last state to receive word.

This day may hold extra significance for Beyonce, as her mother was born in Galveston & they grew up in TX.

In V1, she speaks of “goin back to the South” to where her “roots ain’t watered down, growin like a Baobab tree.”

This references both the state of Texas (the South) and Africa, as Baobab trees are native to Africa.

Baobab tree is also known as the “upside down” tree since the tops, when leafless, look like roots. This seems to be why Bey refers to Baobab as an example of her roots not “being watered down” as they are high in the air.

Later she describes wearing “Ankh charm on gold chains with my Oshun energy.” This references Lemonade, as she’s seen wearing an Ankh pendent and embodying Oshun, the Yoruba Orisha or water goddess.

Both Ankh & Oshun share the life giving power of water. The Ankh is an Egyptian symbol, “the key of life” that was said to be crucial to the rain that filled the Nile River in Africa. Meanwhile Oshun is the goddess of fertility whose water originally brought life on earth.

This water/Africa thread is then confirmed in the following lines, “Uh flooded flooded on my wrist/goin up Motherland drip on me/melanin melanin my drip is skin deep.”

For Beyonce, her blackness IS her swag.

The song’s hook is an extended play on her nickname Queen Bey.

She begins, “Honey/come around my way/my hive.” Later: “Here I come on my throne/sittin high.” Then: “You hear them swarming? Bees is known to bite.”

The latter line refers to her passionate fan base, #beyhive.

Aside from the fun wordplay, the hook also refers to all Black people as royalty. This is implied by the use of “WE” in the second half, instead of “I”

“Now here WE come on our thrones, sittin high/follow my parade.”

Seems to specially call attention to recent BLM protests.

This thread continues into V2: “Rubber bullets bouncin off me/Made a picket sign off your picket fence.”

The latter line cleverly references how protests are working to dismantle the imbalance of power, as symbolized in the idyllic American “picket fence” facade

African swag and royalty continue into V2: “waist beads from Yoruba/Four hunnid billi/ Mansa Musa.”

Mansa Musa was emperor of the Mali empire, a West African state. Black, Musa is the wealthiest person who ever lived, an estimated worth of 400 billion (hence “4 hunnid billi”)

Beyonce again weaves The South and Africa together, “wearing all white to the funeral.”

In many African cultures, white represents death, not black, and in southern states, it’s becoming more common to wear white to funeral services.

Beyonce also weaves together COVID-19 w/ Black excellence, “Put ya any-damn-where we gon make it look cute/Pandemic fly on the runway in my hazmat.”

Refers to Black runway model Naomi Campbell, a germophobe, who went “viral” after flying in a hazmat amid COVID. Still cute tho!

Beyonce then references her collection of Black art, “Runnin through my house to my art, all black/ancestors on the wall, let the ghosts chit chat.”

Beyonce and Jay’s art collection is full of Black artists. An article that details it: https://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/how_i_collect/who-does-beyonce-collect-see-the-queen-beys-fierce-art-collection-55260

Ah just realized the aforementioned “Bees is known to bite” probably references “killer bees” since killer bees are technically named The Africanized Bee for their West African origins.