Who's in Lemonade?
Lemonade includes many voice overs that appear to be generic voices, but they have a great deal of symbolism for Beyoncé’s intended audience.
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When Formation begins, the audience hears a man shouting the question, “What happened, at the New Wild’in?” Within the first line of Beyoncé’s new album, I’m already pondering the origin of her musical choices. What’s “New Wild’in”? Who’s saying it? And finally, why?
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This is not just any man's voice, this is Messy Mya. Messy Mya. Messy Mya was known for posting controversial, free-formed videos on Youtube, specifically about the violence in “New Wild’in,” which is another slang term for New Orleans. Messy Mya was killed in a shooting at the young age of 22.
“What happened at the “New Wildin’” and “Bitch I’m back, by popular demand,” are all direct clips from Messy Mya’s videos. Within New Orleans, Messy Mya has become a celebrity of sorts. People can be found sporting a t-shirt with purple hair on it, which was a style that Messy Mya was known for. From the beginning, Beyoncé starts to use phrases and imagery that narrow her audience to Creole people from New Orleans.
Messy Mya
Beyoncé incorporates other well-known people from New Orleans in the rest of Lemonade. In Formation, Beyoncé includes a voice over saying, “I did not come to play with you hoes, I came to slay,” and Beyoncé continues to repeat “I slay” throughout the rest of the song. Many listeners are clueless of the origin to this voice over, but not if you
Big Freedia
are from New Orleans. This voice is Big Freedia who is renowned in the New Orleans community for her hip hop and bounce music and her connection to the gay community. Similar to Messy Mya, Beyoncé include Big Freedia to highlight her relationship with New Orleans and develop an exclusive factor by choosing a New Orleans-specific artist.
Between Messy Mya and Big Freedia, people from New Orleans are enraged with pride over the representation of key people from their community. While Messy Mya’s sexuality was debated, Big Freedia was an openly gay bounce musician. Messy Mya and Big Freedia represent a community that a non-New Orleans individual would probably know nothing about—the gay rappers in NOLA. “Gay rap” as a genre is an anomaly in most regions of America, but not in New Orleans. Gay rap is a thriving genre there, and Beyoncé pays homage to this community of gay artists when she chose two quotes from this uniquely New Orleans musical genre. Beyoncé chose these cameos to connect with one of her specific audiences—New Orleans.