(Hip hop/R&B) Beyoncé and Jay-Z have collaborated once again, this time for their surprise album called Everything Is Love, released on June 16th, 2018. Debuting at #2 behind Australian band Five Seconds of Summer’s Youngblood, Everything Is Love features songs ripe with truth, sensitivity, and sensuality.  

Credited as ‘The Carters’ on the album, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s first single is called “Apeshit,” and another single, called “Salud!,” was made available exclusively on Mr. Carter’s music streaming website, Tidal. The music video released for “Apeshit” is set in the Louvre and features artwork from the Baroque, Renaissance, and Enlightenment periods among others.

The choice to present themselves as ‘The Carters’ is a sign of peace and unity between the two artists after a tumultuous past two years; Beyoncé’s 2016 Lemonade album delved into the pain and betrayal she felt after Jay-Z’s infidelity.

Lyrically, the album is described by The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis as having “genuine wit,” and “Apeshit” is especially slick in terms of humor: “Gimme my check, put some respek on my check,” Beyoncé raps on the track. “Or pay me in equity. Watch me reverse out of debt.  He got a bad bitch, bad bitch. We livin’ lavish, lavish. I got expensive fabrics, I got expensive habits.” The meaning behind the title of the song is revealed when Beyoncé sings out, “Have you ever seen the crowd going apeshit?”

The album features vocals by none other than Quavo, Offset, Migos, Ty Dolla Sign, and Pharrell, and includes nine tracks. In length, Everything Is Love comes to 38 minutes and 17 seconds, and its rhythm is medium to high tempo for most of the album, typical of Beyoncé’s previous work.

While Jay-Z released his previous album 4:44 almost exactly a year prior to this one, Beyoncé has not released an album since her 2016’s Lemonade, which details Jay-Z’s infidelity during the artists’ marriage.

Some have criticized Beyoncé (and Jay-Z) for releasing Everything Is Love just a day after the release of Christina Aguilera’s first album in six and a half years, Liberation. “The timing of the release was savage, but that’s hip hop,” Exclaim! writer Riley Wallace states.

Also heralded as one of the world’s leading feminists, Beyoncé played a role in attempt to help Democrat candidate for U.S. President Hillary Clinton become elected during 2016, a role that included her and her husband’s performance on November 5th, 2016 at a Clinton rally.