Beyoncé - Formation (music video) (2016) (USA)

Beyoncé timed this very well, releasing the "Formation" music video the day of the Super Bowl where she was set to perform and had a sixteen second announcement of her upcoming tour.
 

This will be money rolling in for her. That's what she means by "black Bill Gates", by the way, not that she'll nick QDOS off some Cessna-flying geek and rename it DOS before selling it to IBM.

In the video, which is set in New Orleans, there's references to Katrina, brothels, and riot police in Ferguson. There's graffiti on a wall at the end that reads "stop killing" us. Beyonce's daughter Blue Ivy makes a cameo.

Mike Will Made-It produced the beat, Khalif “Swae Lee” Brown co-wrote the rap while Marni Senofonte made sure the style was excellent all around. There are poufy sleeves, corsets, a really swanky move with a black hat, and then formation dancing in torn jeans, clunky black boots, and afros which looks like an early 90s reprise - or a Janet Jackson homage.

Of course, half of the internet immediately decides that she's the Queen Bee (again), for this song and video, calling it feminist as she calls all her ladies to dance with her and a celebration of everything black, including 'black cuisine' of crayfish, hot sauce, collard greens, and cornbread. The other half sneer that an old lady is trying to be Rihanna. Meanwhile, I'm worrying that her braids are going to Isadora Duncan her as she cruises, putting me firmly in the "Mom, you just don't get it, sheesh" camp.
Kids, I'm so old I remember when Erykah Badu wore microbraids better.

Director Melina Matsoukas previously directed a man-eating tour in Christina Aguilera - Your Body. Remember kids, always stay gracious, the best revenge is your paper. True dat.

Director: Melina Matsoukas

Styling: Marni Senofonte

Additional NOLA footage shot & directed by Lily Keber and Abteen Bagheri