When [Beyoncé] released The Lion King: The Gift, a collection of original tracks inspired by the film, it became clear that it would function as something deeper than a soundtrack. Songs like “Bigger” and “Brown Skin Girl” embraced Blackness so intentionally, expressing sentiments that extended beyond a single film. Black Is King, a nearly 90-minute-long visual companion to The Gift created by Beyoncé for Disney+, recontextualizes the album as a broader celebration of Black identity…
Through a parade of breath-snatching vignettes filmed across a number of continents, the visual spectacle reveres the inherent beauty of the Black diaspora. Appearances from Lupita Nyong’o, Wizkid, Kelly Rowland, Naomi Campbell, Adut Akech, Pharrell, Tierra Whack, and others inject the effort with the kind of star power that one would expect from a project of this magnitude. It’s the latest from an artist who continues to place culture directly at the center of whatever she touches, a bold choice in an industry that often discourages aggressive cultural expression from anyone who isn’t white. [Shannon Miller]
