Beyonce and Jay-Z drew lots of praise this week as fans celebrated the release of “Everything is Love,” a surprise joint album chronicling the superstar couple’s marital struggles and their journey back to being “happy in love,” as noted on the album’s closing track.
The duo, known collectively as The Carters, shocked the world with the album’s release last Saturday, delivering nine deeply-personal tracks where they appear to lift the veil on their marriage and offer fans a raw look into their personal lives.
Featuring titles like “Boss” and “Heard About Us,” the album is loaded with boisterous references to the couple’s collective wealth and power but it also contains a fair share of messages about how they manage to live their best lives no matter what.
Here are some life lessons discussed on “Everything is Love”:
Wealth is worthless if you can’t share it
Beyonce, 36, and Jay-Z, 48, are known for bragging about their luxurious lifestyle on tracks, but having everything they “prayed for” doesn’t mean anything if they can’t share it with the people they love, according to the hip-hop duo.
“All of my people, I free them all. Hop in the whip, wanna see the stars,” Beyonce raps on the album’s second track.
Beyonce and Jay-Z can do anything, and so can you
The album’s fourth track, “Nice,” is a testament to how they managed to succeed even when the odds were stacked against them.
Embrace entrepreneurship
“Give me my check, put some respect on my check or pay me in equity. Watch me reverse [out of debt],” Beyonce notes on track two, reminding listeners to know their worth.
Appreciate your friends
The singer, known for leading a notoriously private life, makes it known that she definitely has a group of core friends who help keep her in check. The song is all about purging toxic people from your life and maintaining a tight circle of people who want to see you succeed.
“They pray and pray for me, they pray and pray for me. See better things for me. Want better days for me unselfishly,” Beyonce sings.
It’s important to forgive
Beyonce and Jay-Z opened up about their marital struggles and Jay’s infidelity on their most-recent solo projects, “Lemonade” in 2016 and “4:44” in 2017.
“Everything is Love” appears to pick up where those albums left off.
