How Beyoncé’s Lemonade Introduced the World to More African American English
by Ivana Recmanova
“I had my ups and downs, but I always find the inner strength to pull myself up. I was served lemons, but I made lemonade,” Hattie White said at her 90th birthday party. Until 23 April 2016, these words had only resonated among her loved ones, but then her granddaughter-in-law, Beyoncé, put her words on her album, Lemonade.
The album instantly became a classic. Such a classic that you can take a university course dedicated to it. This might seem astonishing given that the album was released as a surprise, with almost zero promotion. However, Beyoncé is no stranger to this — she released her eponymous album in 2013 without any notice, too. There’s even a word for this in Spanish, beyoncear, which means to release an album without notice and exclusively on iTunes. However, many Spanish speakers also use the word in the sense of listening to Beyoncé’s music or watching her visual material.
So, what did the album bring to the world, wordwise? As the album centered on Beyoncé’s experience with her husband’s infidelity and reconciliation with her African American and Creole roots, it is not surprising the lyrics incorporated African American English. Let’s have a look at some examples.
swag
This word has been around for a while, but let’s take a minute to look at its meaning. Beyoncé used this word in two songs, Hold Up (where she samples Turn My Swag On by Soulja Boy) and Formation. Swag means ‘style’ and is borrowed from the Norwegian svagga, which means to rock unsteadily or lurch. You can also find a derivation of the word, swagger, eg. in “to have swagger”, which means ‘to have style’.
Becky
In Sorry, Beyoncé sings, “He only wants me when I’m not there / You better call Becky with the good hair”. Becky, a diminutive of Rebecca, is a term used by African Americans to stereotypically describe a white woman. The word in this sense has already appeared in several rap songs, for example, Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-a-lot, Becky by Plies, and Big Butts by Ying Yang Twins. There exist numerous derivations of the word, such as beckery, which refers to a ‘cringe-worthy thing committed by a white woman’. You can even find a typology of beckies online.
bama
“My daddy Alabama / My momma Louisiana / You mix that Negro with a Creole, make a Texas bama,” Beyoncé sings in Formation. Bama has changed in meaning throughout times, but now it refers to a person with a bad taste or poor judgement skills: fool, punk, you name it. Some people also use it as a synonym for “dude”. Beyoncé may therefore imply she comes from a modest background when she uses the word (in fact, her grandmother was a poor seamstress that used her craft to pay for her daughter’s education).
When the album was released, many people were speculating whether Beyoncé and her husband Jay Z would be getting divorced. Not only did it not happen, but the pair were also blessed with twins in 2017 and went on a joint tour in 2018. This, again, prompted speculation about whether the two were going to release a joint album. We cannot know for certain unless, or until, it happens but one thing is for sure: If or when it is released, there will certainly be some new linguistic material to analyse.
