The night of April 23rd, Beyonce released her largely anticipated new album Lemonade. This album finishes the story that Beyonce started in February, with the release of the single “Formation” as an homage to black girls during Black History Month. But for Beyonce, the statements do not stop there. Upon listening to Lemonade it is revealed that Beyonce is also debuting her emotional journey, step by step, as she found out her husband, Jay Z, had been cheating on her with another woman.

Premiering on Tidal Saturday night, Lemonade is also an audio-visual album, presented in an hour-long video special on HBO on demand. The hour-long special is split into parts, featuring a beautifully crafted mixture of spoken word and songs featured on Lemonade, telling the story of dealing with betrayal and love as a black woman in America through stunning music, cinematography, and wardrobe.

Here are the parts of the audio/visual album described along with the most iconic lines from each section:

“Intuition”

Bey first discovers Jay Z is cheating on her.

• “You remind me of my father, a magician … able to exist in two places at once. In the tradition of men in my blood, you come home at 3 a.m. and lie to me.”

  • In this spoken Beyonce is exposing Jay Z and her father, telling the listener that the cheating men resemble each other in their cunning way of adultery.

  • There lines are accompanied by images of black woman on plantations, wearing 1800s styled clothing, bringing the viewer back to the root of every black girl’s political and societal problems: hundreds of years of slavery and oppression in America.

From here the video delves into the first song: “PRAY YOU CATCH ME” in which Beyonce first realizes she is being cheated on.

“Denial”

This section is pretty self explanatory; Beyonce does not want to believe she was disrespected and betrayed in such a way, so she simply doesn’t. As a result, she tries to change herself to satisfy her cheating husband, drowning herself trying to be what she thinks will keep him happy with her.

• “I tried to change. Closed my mouth more, tried to be softer, prettier, less awake.”

But then, suddenly, Queen Bey remembers she is Queen B. And that’s when the gates flood open (literally) as she utters “…but still inside me, coiled deep, was the need to know … Are you cheating on me? Cheating? Are you cheating on me?”.

From here Bey goes into the most upbeat song of the album “HOLD UP”. She remembers she is Queen and should be in Jay Z’s life as well. In the video she prances around town in a bright yellow dress while smashing in car windows with the repeated line “What’s worse…being jealous or crazy?”.

“Anger”

However, the feeling of disbelief for Bey cannot last forever, and she is not extremely upset at Jay Z and the woman he cheated on her with, as expressed in her spoken word piece:

• “If it’s what you truly want … I can wear her skin over mine. Her hair over mine. Her hands as gloves. Her teeth as confetti. Her scalp, a cap. Her sternum, my bedazzled cane. We can pose for a photograph, all three of us. Immortalized … you and your perfect girl.”

So,  anger ensues in the song “DON’T HURT YOURSELF”. During the song is a voice-over from a speech by Malcolm X, in which he states,  “The most disrespected woman in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.” Beyonce makes sure that people know this and should be ready to change it.

• “If you try this sh*t again, you gon’ lose your wife”. Jay Z… you better watch out.

“Apathy”

Bey feels empty and so is everyone’s tear ducts.

• Jay Z, “So what are you gonna say at my funeral, now that you’ve killed me? Here lies the body of the love of my life, whose heart I broke without a gun to my head.”

• “Ashes to ashes. Dust to side chicks”. Ouch.

• Here Serena Williams makes a debut, strutting her stuff to the song “SORRY”, as Bey ceases to blame herself for any of this, and relies on her girlfriends to have her back through this ordeal.

• “Looking at my watch, he shoulda been home/ Today I regret the night I put that ring on”

• “He only want me when I’m not there/ He better call Becky with the good hair”

  • This line could be named the most controversial line in the entire visual album. The Bey Hive has been on a hunt to find “Becky”, and when Rachel Roy, Damon Dash’s ex-wife (Damon Dash is also Jay Z’s ex-business partner), posted a picture after the release of Lemonade with the caption “Good hair don’t care, but we will take good lighting, for selfies, or self truth, always… live in the light #nodramaqueens” Beyonce’s fans immediately started to attack her as she was the prime suspect. However, some fans accidentally mistook Rachael Ray for Rachel Roy, and proceeded to attack the Food Network star of adultery, when she is only really at fault for increasing our calorie counts.

  • Controversially, Rachel Roy has publicly claimed that the post was a joke and that she is not involved in the situation.

“Emptiness”

This section, which is purely monologue, expresses Bey’s difficulty to deal with her emotional and physical separation from her husband.

“Loss”

Featuring the song “6 INCH”, which is about how hard a woman works for her money in this male dominated world, and how she should conserve it to make a better life for herself.

• “Come back, come back… come back”. Beyonce heart-breakingly utters these words, revealing Bey’s wishes for Jay Z to return.

“Accountability”

Here Bey transports the viewer to her hometown and clips of her childhood as she realizes her story is a vicious cycle in the song “DADDY LESSONS”.

• “Mother dearest, let me inherit the earth. Teach me how to make him beg. Let me make up for the years he made you wait. Did he bend your reflection? Did he make you forget your own name? Did he convince you he was a god? Did you get on your knees daily? Do his eyes close like doors? Are you a slave to the back of his head? Am I talking about your husband or your father?”

  • In this next stage of Bey’s story she realizes she knows all too well about what is happening to her because her mother went through it with her father, who she is holding accountable for part of her hurt.

• “When trouble comes to town and men like me come around/Oh my daddy said shoot”

“Reformation”

Bey continues with the song “LOVE DROUGHT” which reveals she wants to reform her relationship with her husband but there seems to be something standing in her way.

“Forgiveness”

Up next is the beautiful ballad “SANDCASTLES” that is a soulful and emotional song about how Bey forgives Jay Z as he surrenders to his mistakes.

The rawness of their relationship is shows in the wilted flowers shown but their mending of their relationship is shown as Jay Z is actually featured in the video as Bey sings to him in an embrace.

“Resurrection”

The scenery in this section reverts back to the images in “Intuition” but are accompanied with the song “FORWARD” featuring James Blake, which gives the feeling that Bey hopes that her relationship and black woman can resurrect in the future. It also features to woman holding frames of black men, presumably who have been killed because of police brutality; Trayvon Martin’s mother is pictured here as well.

“Hope”

The powerful song “FREEDOM” featuring Kendrick Lamar, is performed in this section. Numerous black woman in 1800s style clothing on a plantation are shown again, highlighting famous black woman in the media today, such as Amandla Stenberg, Zendaya, Blue Ivy, and Quvenzhané Wallis, standing united.

“Redemption”

• “Take one pint of water, add a half pound of sugar, the juice of eight lemons, the zest of half a lemon. Pour the water from one jug then into the other several times. Strain through a clean napkin.”

  • Beyonce reveals here that this album tells the story of how she made lemonade when life gave her lemons, inspiring the album title.

• “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. My grandma said “Nothing real can be threatened. True love brought salvation back into me. With every tear came redemption and my torturers became my remedy. So we’re gonna heal. We’re gonna start again. You’ve brought the orchestra, synchronized swimmers.

  • This is a quote from Beyonce’s grandmother, an obvious inspiration for the album and her reasons for forgiving Jay Z.

“ALL NIGHT” is the second to last song in the album that shows that her love with Jay Z was stronger than the tribulations thrown at them.

“FORMATION,” the single that gave a snippet to this story, is all about black empowerment, especially for women. This is evident in the Black Panther, Malcolm X, and police brutality references and the black only cast, and a myriad of other historical references to slavery and the Civil Rights Movement.

As a whole, Beyonce’s masterful album has created a demand for equality for black woman while recounting her own experience of being betrayed by her husband. The album is now available on iTunes and Amazon for anyone willing to purchase an emotional journey with an icon of our century.