They say art is truth...
Beyoncé got fierce about "Becky with the good hair" in Lemonade and Jay-Z indirectly admitted to infidelity in his recent 4:44—but why did the superstars open up to the world about their marriage problems? The impetus behind sharing their dirty laundry with the masses may have to do with keeping "on brand" for the widely beloved couple.
E! News caught up with branding expert Eric Schiffer, chairman of Reputation Management and consultant to E! News, to talk about the business of why the power couple may have taken to their music to reveal the messy truth of what went down between the two of them behind closed doors.
"Coming clean about Jay-Z and Beyoncé's past trouble absolutely helps their brand because millennials demand that the ultimate aspirational brand in 2017 is 100% relatable," revealed the expert.
Schiffer added that their audience wants reality, even if involves some ugly truths, instead of a picture-perfect facade.
"Millennials are the most sophisticated, media-savvy generation of all time—they crave authenticity," said Schiffer. "They want their celebrities to be genuine and they reject phony posturing and fake news PR-spin masquerading as the truth."
Yesterday, Hova came out with a new visual, Footnotes on 4:44, pegged to album's title track, in which he is joined by slew of celebrities including Chris Rock, Jesse Williams, Will Smith, Kendrick Lamar, Anthony Anderson, Aziz Ansari and more for a candid discussion on relationships, love and the pressure that comes with dating in the public eye.
In the visual, Jay reflects on his nearly decade-long marriage to Bey: "This is my real life. I just ran into this place and we built this big, beautiful mansion of a relationship that wasn't totally built on the 100 percent truth and it starts cracking."
Meanwhile, in the title track, "4:44," Jay rapped about past wrongdoings: "Look, I apologize, often womanize / Took for my child to be born / See through a woman’s eyes / Took for these natural twins to believe in miracles."
The confessional lyrics continued, "And if my children knew, I don’t even know what I would do /If they ain’t look at me the same / I would prob’ly die with all the shame / ‘You did what with who?’ / What good is a ménage à trois when you have a soulmate? / ‘You risked that for Blue?'"
In his song, "Family Feud," the father of three says, "Yeah, I’ll f—k up a good thing if you let me / Let me alone Becky! / A man who don’t take care of his family can’t be rich."
Whatever motivated their decisions to be public about their private struggles, these two definitely know how to slay their legions of fans.