Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ Gets a Fresh Take on Season 6 of Spotify’s ‘Dissect’ Podcast

Back in 2016, Beyoncé’s Lemonade album and film provoked a worldwide discussion about race, feminism, social media, and the music industry at large. Lemonade became the highest-selling album globally at 2.5 million copies, and it brought Beyoncé’s longstanding themes of female empowerment and camaraderie, emotional vulnerability, and the costs and pleasures of fame to the forefront of pop consciousness. It changed culture, politics, music, and their intersections. And now, it’s the subject of Spotify’s Dissect Season 6 podcast. 

Each season, Dissect, a serialized music podcast found exclusively on Spotify, takes an academic approach to analyzing iconic albums. Every episode focuses on one song in the release that had an undeniable influence on music and hip-hop culture. Beyoncé’s Lemonade now joins the ranks of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly (S1), Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (S2), Frank Ocean’s Blonde (S3), Tyler, The Creator’s Flower Boy (S4), Ms. Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Mini Season), and Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. (S5). 

Plus, Season 6 brings new changes worthy of Queen Bey. For the first time ever, host and creator Cole Cuchna will be joined by a cohost, Titi Shodiya (winner of Spotify’s Sound Up podcast workshop and creator and cohost of Dope Labs podcast, a Spotify Original). The two make leaps of interpretative wonder, fusing insights, music theory, instrumentation, and lyric interpretation with social analysis to empower fans to build deeper connections with Beyoncé’s artistry. For the first time in the show’s history, Dissect will also include behind-the-scenes video footage from the hosts’ travels to exclusive music video sites to accompany the episodes. 

Unlike Beyoncé’s previous albums, the 12-track Lemonade is edgy, full of vitriol and real talk. It contains scornful tales and lyrics that address Jay Z’s long-rumored infidelity in the track “Sorry,” as well as references to social injustices and police brutality on “Formation.” The album alongside its accompanying film not only ushered in a new era of surprise releases and visual experiences, but created a ripple effect that kept it front and center in the cultural zeitgeist.

The Dissect series launches on the fourth anniversary of Lemonade’s surprise release. Check out the first two episodes, “Pray You Catch Me” and “Hold Up,” starting today, April 24. All in, the season will include 12 episodes, with a new one airing every Tuesday following today’s two-episode binge drop. 

Get a refreshing take on the album geared for both lifelong Beyoncé fans and Lemonade-era newcomers. Stream the first few episodes below.