‘Black Is King’ review: Beyoncé’s ‘The Lion King’-inspired visual album is a feast of aesthetic excellence

nme.com:

Beyoncé took her first step down from that Coachella plinth in 2018, flanked by the best and brightest students from her country’s institutionally black colleges, she laid down as the gauntlet that would fuel her transition into the fourth decade of her career.

Without alienating the largely white crowd, she made it clear that race was always on the table, and her image of black excellence even more so.Her role as the voice of Nala in Disney’s 2019 live-action remake of The Lion King was high-profile, but its accompanying Bey-curated soundtrack ‘The Lion King: The Gift’ felt arguably underrated, somewhat lost in the melee of the film’s release.Pitched as an unrepressed ode to black joy and lineage, ‘Black Is King’ – a ‘visual album’ –.