Easter Eggs From Beyonce's 'Lemonade' Every Member of the BeyHive Should Know
It's been almost a week since Beyoncé premiered her Lemonade visual album and the unpacking of it has only just begun.
Lemonade gives us new music, but it also teaches us lessons and introduces us to new artists, writers and trains of thought. It's for this reason that a full understanding of the album will take more than just a week, year or even decade. While you begin your education on Warsan Shire and the many symbols of African heritage present in Bey's visual album, we have some hidden Easter eggs from it to bring to your attention.
From the Boy Bye bus in "Sorry" to the set of True Detective Season 1, these are the Lemonade details you missed the first time around.
The Hot Sauce bat
Remember when Beyoncé said she has hot sauce in her bag? Here it is: Her Hot Sauce bat that she likely carries around in her bag in case she runs in to Becky with the good hair—whoever that might be.
The Boy Bye bus
The bus that Beyoncé is seen riding in and dancing on in the video for "Sorry" has been given a name by Bey herself. It's the Boy Bye bus, a.k.a. the mode of transportation you metaphorically (or literally) take when you're telling a fuccboi to move far, far away from you. Just kidding. It's a reference to the lyric from "Sorry" ("Tell him, 'Boy, bye'").
The Ankh symbol
Kim Kimble, Beyoncé's hairstylist for many years, told The Cut that many of the looks from Lemonade were inspired by Egyptian culture. Kimble was likely referring strictly to the hairstyles in Lemonade, but as you can see here, Bey is wearing a necklace with the Ankh symbol. In Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Ankh means "life" or "breath of life." Egyptian gods are often depicted wearing an Ankh as a symbol of their immortality.
The kintsugi bowl
During the "Forgiveness" portion of the Lemonade album, an image of a bowl appears just before the song "Sandcastles." This bowl is a kintsugi bowl, a creation of a particular type of Japanese ceramics in which craftsmen use lacquer to repair broken pottery. The use of lacquer, often gold lacquer, is both symbolic and functional. The lacquer draws attention to the broken parts while making them even more beautiful, reinforcing the notion that there is beauty in what has once been broken. As Beyoncé said during the spoken word portion of this part of the visual album, "If we're gonna heal, let it be glorious."
The True Detective set
During "All Night" Beyoncé walks along the Fort Macomb ruins of New Orleans East. These are the same ruins depicted in True Detective, most famously in the Season 1 finale.
Blue Ivy and the "Single Ladies" dance
In the video for "Formation," Blue Ivy is seen posing and dancing with two other girls, which some took as an allusion to Beyoncé's time as a member of Destiny's Child. In one particular scene in "Formation," Blue and the girls are running in a circle, which looks familiar because...
The Kanye shout—out
You only see them for a couple of seconds, but these "Uh Huh Honey" slides from the "Formation" video are likely a reference to Kanye. The "uh huh honey" lyric was popularized in 2013 by Kanye's "Bound 2" hit and samples "Sweet Nothings" by Brenda Lee.
The Bamas jerseys
Beyoncé's eye for detail has reached an all-time high in Lemonade. During "Formation," there's a brief shot of two men holding basketballs while wearing jerseys that say Bamas. This is a design directly referencing Bey's lyric from the song.