On Saturday night, Queen Bee (thats Beyonce for all you under the rock dwellers) released her new music video, “Formation.” Unlike many pop artists on the radio who produce overly-kitschy, sell-out lines, Beyonce uses her latest music video to spread political messages about racism, wealth disparity and gender roles, and to dispel rumors about her personal life.

The music video references both Hurricane Katrina and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Scenes include Beyonce singing on the hood of police vehicle slowly submerging in water, a rioting child dancing in front of armed police and blacks posing in southern vintage clothing while Beyonce confidently flips off the camera.

In the first line of “Formation,” she calls the Illuminati “corny,” dispelling the rumors that her success is owed to the conspiracy-theory-enthusiast rappers. Throughout the song, she confronts other criticism of her personal life, including her daughter’s appearance specifically her hair.

Online, people have brutally criticized her daughter, Blue Ivy, for having afro hair and a wide nose; but Beyonce defends Blue Ivy, claiming, “I like my Negroes with Jackson 5 nostrils.” Her proud use of the word “Negro” to describe her family emphasizes her history and reclaims the word from past abusers.

Beyonce confronts public perceptions of black hair with lyrics like, “I like my baby hair, with baby hair and afros.” At the same time, she sports bleached blonde straight hair and various other hairstyles rather than the traditional afro. Furthermore, Beyonce is the only blonde among all of her dancers, with the exception of a group in a wig store.

Critics may ask why Beyonce doesn’t rock natural hair with the rest of her dancers if she is advocating for natural hair? It seems like Beyonce is demonstrating the fluidity of black culture through the fluidity of her hairstyles. Beyonce rejects the notion that anyone can define black hair by a uniform standard.

A self-proclaimed feminist, Beyonce defies traditional gender roles within the genre of rap music videos. In “Formation,” a semi-clothed male suggestively dances, the chorus addresses solely women, mostly women are featured — similar to her other videos — and Beyonce delivers lines that are typically heard in a male rapper’s video. For example, she alludes to buying things for her male love interest and making him famous.

Drake is a rapper conventionally known to boast about buying his girlfriends material objects. In the song “Energy,” he raps “I bought this one a purse. I bought this one a truck. I bought this one a house. I bought this one a mall.” Beyonce parallels lyrics like Drake’s, possibly ironically, to emphasize her equal financial and musical success.

Internet commentators have rejoiced in the song’s humorous lines “I got hot sauce in my bag, swag,” “If he f*** me good I might take his ass to Red Lobster” and the line in which she refers to her haters as “albino alligators.”

These lines highly contrast with the imagery of police barricades and flooded New Orleans. They are humorous to many, but they also reveal how true Beyonce has stayed to her roots.

Some lyrics can appear to be disjointed from the political message, like those that play to her ego. She claims, “I’m a black Bill Gates in the making,” emulating the same egotistical lyrical format that male artists within her genre use. As a public figure scrutinized by the media and a woman competing in the R&B industry, ego is necessary to flourish. The self-boasting chorus verse, “I slay,” refers to social media comments that fans leave on her pictures mainly regarding her appealing physical demeanor. Her ending line, “The best revenge is your paper,” refers to the millions she has made in the past decade.

Yet, when examining this video, viewers can see that a large fraction of people she is representing do not thrive economically, and they definitely don’t receive the amount of “paper” Beyonce does. Perhaps paper is an ultra-rich megastar’s reparations, but the individual line does not speak for the community she is representing.

However, the few disjointed lyrics may be overlooked when considering the important takeaway.

Based on internet reactions, Beyonce’s fans are thankful that “Formation” deviates from music videos produced by artists of her similar status. Queen Bee delivers a bold string of messages: the New Orleans community is still affected by Hurricane Katrina; police brutality must be stopped; black lives matter; and Bey is not to be questioned.

The Queen continues to slay beyond fashion, music, dance and sex appeal by producing art that tackles pressing issues such as gender and race inequality.