Forget sipping the tea, Beyoncé fans are still guzzling lemonade.
The singer's visual album made its debut this weekend on HBO with the album download available exclusively on Tidal for a limited time. As of today, it is available for download on iTunes and Amazon.
Social media is still on fire, but not all of the focus is on the merits of the music.
Lemonade (the video) is a visual journey into Beyoncé's mind and music that heavily plays on the theme of marital discord with a little racism, feminism and probably a few other -isms thrown in. While she tosses out a few lyrical doozies in the course of the hour-long video, the one that caught everyone's attention was "He only want me when I'm not on there / He better call Becky with the good hair."
As always, we can't be sure if Beyoncé is offering up autobiographical or fictional material, but then fashion designer Rachel Roy piped up on Instagram with a now deleted post that led everyone to believe that she is the Becky to which Beyoncé is referring. Naturally her post was turned into a screenshot by savvy media organizations including this one from the Daily Beast:
It didn't take long for the Beyhive to come in with stingers blazing which prompted Roy to retreat by making her IG account private. She then resurfaced on Twitter with this:
Unfortunately, when Roy went private on IG, Bey's rabid fans went in on TV chef Rachel Ray who most likely is not in the running for Becky. Between the two of them, it's pretty clear Roy has better hair.
What isn't clear is why Roy made the ill-fated decision to post anything that would even SUGGEST she is connected in any way to Beyoncé and Jay Z, particularly given events of the recent past -- specifically, the alleged exchange of words between Beyoncé and Roy at the Met Gala in 2014 which culminated in Beyoncé's little sister Solange taking a foot to Jay Z in an elevator.
Since there seems to be a little confusion about just who Rachel Roy is, here's a little help. She's the ex-wife of Damon Dash -- Jay Z's former friend and business partner ( and cousin to FOX contributor, Stacey Dash .)
Dash and Jay Z fell out years ago. While the details are sketchy to anyone outside the music industry, suffice it to say Dash felt like his friend gave him a raw deal. Dash has also referred to how Jay Z was interested in the late singer Aaliyah, who had an actual romance with Dash before her untimely death, and of course, that could fuel an ego-driven affair with Dash's ex-wife, right?
It's all so messy, so let's get back to Rachel Roy. Here are a few things you may want to know about her:
- Back in the day, Roy worked in the mailroom at Rocawear (the clothing brand created by Dash and Jay Z in 1999) before moving up to the marketing department and finally to creative director.
- Roy is a fashion designer who launched her eponymous fashion line in 2004 and a bridge collection in 2009 which is carried in Macy's stores nationwide. In 2007 she became a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
- The mom of two girls with Damon Dash was recently granted full custody of both girls and a restraining order against Dash, though Dash can have supervised visits with the children.
- Roy was raised Seventh-day Adventist and had to watch TV behind her father's back. Since that was mostly old movies, much of her early style as a designer was influenced by the 1940s, she said in a 2009 interview with the AJC. "I was very inspired by women in the '40s because they were equal in femininity and in strength," she said.
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