Everyone has opinions on the Carters’ music video, Apeshit. “They seem to be trying to undo a larger project of disinheritance” wrote Jenna Waltham for the New York Times magazine, which placed “Apeshit” at eighth place on its 2019 list of Top 25 Songs That Matter Right Now. “ At the New Yorker, Doreen St. Felix wrote “The Carters are their own protagonists in a grand narrative of establishing a black élite,” and disagreed that the power couple’s decision to engage so closely with European colonialist art was a “transgression.” Kevin Allred at NBC News called her performances “critical disobedience” and “performative disrespect.” While there is some truth to all these opinions, I am inclined to agree that we cannot simply dismiss the Carters’ performance as a display of opulence and influence. There is critical engagement happening here, if perhaps not exactly in the way that Emilie Townes envisioned.

Taken on their own, it is easy to see why some latched onto the lyrics to the first record from the Carters’ “Everything Is Love” album. “Gimme my check, put some respek on my check/Or pay me in equity (pay me in equity)/Watch me reverse out of debt” raps Beyonce in the song’s first verse. Her insistence on monetary recognition is a reminder that black women have not, historically, got the reimbursement they deserve; it also reminds us, as Emilie Townes does, that economic equality and stability is vital to the freedom of a black woman in a postmodern American society. Later, she declares, “My body make Jigga go kneel (woo)/Man, my momma, my Lord, my shield (shield)”, recognizing in her body, her mother and her god all in the same breath. All of these forces are acknowledged by womanism - the importance of black women’s bodies, black women's communities, the bond between black women and their spirituality. Beyonce makes space for all of them in her lyrics, however fleetingly.

The track is also an example of how critical engagement does not need to be a solely female endeavor. “I can't believe we made it (this is what we made, made)/This is what we're thankful (this is what we thank, thank)” the Carters rap during the chorus, hands clasped together. While the personal significance of the words is clear - the couple’s recovery from Jay-Z’s infidelity - the setting of the music video might lead viewers to think about why else a pair of black performing artists would be need to be thankful for their superstardom. It is evident that by shooting “Apeshit” at the Louvre,  the Carters made a calculated decision to bring their story as a black power couple into what is viewed as an exclusive, white European space. The first time we see them, they have their backs to the Mona Lisa, inserting themselves into her story.  Later, Beyonce holds hands with a line of black dancers, all in nude bodysuits meant to represent different shades of blackness. Beyond the shot's obvious message of black female unity and strength, the painting in front of which it is positioned is highly relevant; Jacques-Louise David’s representation of the (self) crowning of Napoleon and Empress Josephine. There are clear parallels between the history of colonialism and imperialism in the painting, the decision of establishments like the Louvre to keep prizing images pertaining to these histories, and Beyonce’s claiming of her right to be present in that space.

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However, as both the New Yorker and Time Magazine’s Cady Lang noted, one of the video’s most powerful moments was during its closing sequence, featuring two black dancers, Jasmine Harper and Nicholas Stewart, in front of the Mona Lisa.  As Harper picks out Stewart’s hair, they take center stage and the Mona Lisa behind them fades away. “That image gave me a primal political thrill. Beyoncé and Jay-Z have enlisted surrogates, knowing that the effect wouldn’t have been the same if the man and woman in the scene were them,” writes St. Felix.

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I am inclined to agree. Beyonce’s decision to step back and let the moment be communicated by two black people not instantly synonymous with superstardom briefly disengages their message from the other narratives of capitalism and celebrity. We are reminded that despite the diamonds and the G8 jets, Beyonce is still a black woman who is looked up to as a symbol for other black woman. With “Apeshit,” she made an attempt to use this power to challenge the spaces into which black women are allowed - and how proud they are allowed to be of their progress once they make it there .

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