The most shocking lyrics from Beyonce’s new album Lemonade

BEYONCE’S new album gives a shockingly frank look at her relationship with Jay Z and his rumoured infidelities.

Beyonce and Jay Z have always put on a united public front — until now. Picture: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

WHEN Beyonce dropped her bold, politically charged new single Formation back in February, many speculated the album to follow would be similarly concerned with issues affecting the world at large.

As it turns out, Lemonade — both the album and its accompanying hour-long film — is largely concerned with matters closer to home.

Ever since the infamous ‘elevator incident’ of 2014, when Bey’s sister Solange was caught on security cameras savagely attacking Jay Z while Beyonce coolly looked on, many have wondered if cracks were appearing in the power couple’s relationship.

Footage from the elevator incident soon leaked online and made world headlines.

Now, Lemonade’s lyrics leave little doubt that there’s been trouble in paradise for the pair in the ensuing two-and-a-half years. The lyrics are shocking in their frankness, and the album reads as the chronological fallout of a partner’s infidelity: shock, anger, and then — in this case — acceptance, as the pair work things out and move forward.

We’ve collated the most pointed and personal lyrics from the songs here. Taken as a whole, they arguably say more about what Beyonce and Jay Z have been through in the past couple of years than any tell-all interview could.

Track 1: Pray You Catch Me

“You can taste the dishonesty / It’s all over your breath as you pass it off so cavalier ...”

“What are you doing my love?”

Interlude

“So what are you going to 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. Here lies the mother of my children both living and dead. Rest in peace, my true love, who I took for granted.”

‘Children both living and dead’ appears to reference both Bey and Jay Z’s four-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy, and Beyonce’s earlier miscarriage, which she first revealed in her documentary Life Is But A Dream.

One of the opening scenes from Lemonade.

Track 2: Hold Up

“I smell your secret, and I’m not too perfect

To ever feel this worthless

How did it come down to this?

Going through your call list

I don’t wanna lose my pride, but I’ma f**k me up a bitch

Know that I kept it sexy, and know I kept it fun

There’s something that I’m missing, maybe my head for one”

“What’s worse, lookin’ jealous or crazy?

Or like being walked all over lately,

I’d rather be crazy”

“Let’s imagine for a moment that you never made a name for yourself

Or mastered wealth, they had you labelled as a king

Never made it out the cage, still out there movin’ in them streets

Never had the baddest woman in the game up in your sheets

Would they be down to ride?”

Interlude

“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 3am and lie to me. What are you hiding? The past and the future merge to meet us here. What luck. What a f**king curse.”

“Ashes to ashes, dust to side chicks.”

Dealing with betrayal, Beyonce’s in combat mode for the first half of the film.

Track 3: Don’t Hurt Yourself

“Who the f**k do you think I am?

You ain’t married to no average bitch boy

And keep your money, I got my own

Get a bigger smile on my face, being alone”

“I smell that fragrance on your Louie V boy

Just give my fat ass a big kiss boy

Tonight I’m f**king up all your s**t boy”

“This is your final warning

You know I give you life

If you try this s**t again

You gon’ lose your wife ...”

At this point in the film, Beyonce takes off her wedding ring and throws it at the camera.

Track 4: Sorry

“Headed to the club, I ain’t thinking ‘bout you

Suck on my b***s, I had enough”

“Now you want to say you’re sorry

Now you want to call me crying

Now I’m the one that’s lying

And I don’t feel bad about it

It’s exactly what you get”

“Looking at my watch, he shoulda been home

Today I regret the night I put that ring on

He always got them f***ing excuses

I pray to the Lord you reveal what his truth is

I left a note in the hallway

By the time you read it, I’ll be far away”

“Suicide before you see this tear fall down my eyes

Me and my baby, we gon’ be alright

We gon’ live a good life”

“He only want me when I’m not there

He better call Becky with the good hair”

Interlude

“I tried to change, closed my mouth more, tried to be softer, prettier, less awake... but still inside me, coiled deep, was the need to know…are you cheating on me?”

Track 7: Daddy Lessons

“My daddy warned me about men like you

He said baby girl he’s playing you

Cause when trouble comes in town

And men like me come around

Oh, my daddy said shoot”

Both Blue Ivy and Jay Z make brief appearances in the film.

Track 8: Love Drought

“Ten times out of nine, I know you’re lying

But nine times outta ten, I know you’re trying

So I’m trying to be fair”

“Are you aware you’re my lifeline, are you tryna kill me?”

“I always paid attention, been devoted — tell me, what did I do wrong?”

Track 9: Sandcastles

“Dishes smashed on my counter from our last encounter

Pictures snatched out the frame

Bitch, I scratched out your name and your face

What is it about you that I can’t erase, baby?”

“And your heart is broken cause I walked away

And I know I promised that I couldn’t stay

Every promise don’t work out that way”

Track 10: Forward

“It’s time to listen, it’s time to fight

Now we can be open for a while

Go back to your sleep in your favourite spot just next to me”

As the mood on ‘Lemonade’ moves from anger to forgiveness, we see scenes from Beyonce and Jay Z’s wedding day.

Track 11: All Night

“Found the truth beneath your lies

And true love never has to hide

I’ve seen your scars and kissed your crime”

“They say true love’s the greatest weapon

To win the war caused by pain

But every diamond has imperfections

But my love’s too pure to watch it chip away

Oh nothing real can be threatened

With every tear came redemption

And my torturer became a remedy”

And the final lyric, before Formation completely changes the topic as an album closer:

“How I missed you, my love.”

Neither Beyonce or Jay Z — who appears in the Lemonade film, holding his wife tight and looking repentant while she sings about forgiveness — have made any public statement about Lemonade or how it should be received and interpreted. It appears that, for now, Beyonce’s happy to let her music do the talking.