Beyoncé’s Tip Toe Around Appropriation

Disclaimer: I do not hate Bey.

I simply think it’s important to analyze how her brand appropriates for profit.

Beyoncé’s new album is a delicate dance around appropriation — crossing her T’s and dotting her I’s through strategic producer credits and emotional testimony — while still remaining outside of the niche culture she is profiting off of.

Rennaisance is an album that is very consciously focused on celebrating the queer community. But that celebration turns a profit, mainly for her. How does she distract people from this? By involving the “right” producers and positioning herself as being connected to the queer community without actually being in it.

This album, much like a number of tracks off of Drake’s latest, Actually Nevermind, include soundscapes fit for the ballroom scene and original house and techno scenes — spaces that were historically havens for queer people of color. Rennaisance positions itself as a piece of work that celebrates the queer intersection of Blackness, which just so happens to be gaining a great deal of visibility in pop culture in general. While Beyoncé is not queer (to our knowledge), she is Black, which places her adjacent to the queer, Black community that laid the foundation for these various…