In December Jay-Z dropped the 8 minute video for his song Family Feud. About half way through the video it shows him walking into a Catholic church with his real-life daughter, rapping away—”Nobody wins when the family feuds”. It is a dramatic music video with a huge storyline at the start before Jay-Z starts his song.
There is some swearing in the song.
For us in Religious Studies it offers us some learning opportunities:
- the song is about adultery and the importance of family
- the scenes inside what looks like a catholic church let us see pews, stained glass windows, the cross, pulpit and confessional booth
- Jay-Z asks Beyonce for forgiveness (“can get Amen from the congregation?”) and she gives him redemption by singing “Amen”
With Jay-Z inside a supposed Catholic Church what would those with that faith say about his admitted infidelities?
The first part of the video is also interesting from a PSHCE angle too:
- the start of the video has the year 2444 and the monarchy is in distress with the head of the family dealing with an upset and jealous brother.
- when the queen is helped by her boyfriend, “Is that good enough for you?” she shows her own power by silently stabbing him in the back with a knife saying, “It’s my throne.”
- there are co-presidents who are black and native American which helps us imagine that one day there’ll be racial equality in the USA
- eight women sit around a table and rewrite the constitution in the year 2050, with the narrator reminding us that this is “a time when some thought that making America great was making us afraid of each other” but in fact “America is a family and the whole family should be free”.
Advertisements Share this:
