Rap star Jay-Z released a music video on Friday that features him addressing the pain of infidelity as he appears in a confessional booth opposite his wife, singer Beyonce.
Set partly in a church and also featuring the couple’s 5-year-old daughter Blue Ivy, the Family Feud video pays tribute to family ties and female empowerment.
“We all lose when the family feuds,” Jay-Z sings. “A man that don’t take care of his family can’t be rich.”
The video is the latest from Jay-Z’s hit album 4:44, in which he responds to allegations of cheating revealed by Beyonce in her 2016 Grammy-winning album Lemonade.
Within an hour of its release, Family Feud was the top trending item on Twitter. Jay-Z has a leading eight nominations for the Grammy Awards in January, including the top prizes of best album, song and record of the year.
Full video on Tidal
The full video of Family Feud, which appears only on Jay-Z’s Tidal streaming platform, features cameos by multiple film and television stars including Jessica Chastain, America Ferrera, Rashida Jones, Mindy Kaling and Brie Larson.
Jay-Z, 48, confirmed in a New York Times interview in November that he had been unfaithful to Beyonce earlier in their nine-year marriage.
The rapper’s soul-baring 4:44 album on love, life and social issues was widely seen as an apology to his wife.
The couple, one of the richest and most influential in the music industry, have reconciled and Beyonce gave birth to their twins in June.
Heavy on symbolism, the eight-minute-long Family Feud shows the musician walking into a church holding the hand of Blue Ivy and taking a seat in the confessional booth.
Bey as priestess
Beyonce, dressed in a black, priestess-like robe, watches silently from a pulpit and later sits listening on the other side of the confessional screen.
Directed by filmmaker Ava DuVernay, the video also envisions a future in which a grown-up Blue Ivy and other women of colour, portrayed by actresses Mindy Kaling, Rosario Dawson, America Ferrera, Thandie Newton and Niecy Nash, appear to rule the world.
The video portrays Blue Ivy as a transformational U.S. leader.
Blue Ivy, who turns six on January 7, is depicted as leading an all-female constitutional convention in 2050.
The narrative shows “America’s founding mothers” — a cheeky take on the “founding fathers” who established the U.S. political system — passionately debate whether to preserve the constitution’s Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms.
The women needed to revise the constitution at a time “when some thought that making America great meant making us afraid of each other,” a voice is heard saying — in an unmistakable critique of U.S. President Donald Trump and his campaign slogan.
The convention ends with a forceful appeal from the meeting’s leader: “America is a family, and the whole family should be free.”
Future leader Blue Ivy
Family Feud does not explicitly depict Blue Ivy as president, but the video quickly sparked chatter online.
“President Blue Ivy 2050. #FamilyFeud. I’ll be 79 when I cast this vote,” hip-hop drummer and producer Questlove wrote on Twitter.
Jay-Z and Beyonce, who together are worth an estimated $1 billion, have been increasingly outspoken about their left-leaning political views and are friendly with former U.S. president Barack Obama.
(With inputs from AFP)