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Black Is King

Beyonce Knowles

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Friday? Never heard of it. Today is Beyoncé Day, my friends, because today is the day that Beyoncé’s new visual album, Black Is King, premiered on Disney+. If you, like me, got up at 7 a.m. to watch it, you know that it is very good. But if you didn’t get up at 7 a.m. to watch it, you might have some questions about what Black Is King by Beyoncé actually is.

Black Is King was not a surprise release, as Beyoncé has been known to do in the past, but there was still some mystery and confusion leading up to its release. Fans had questions like: Was it a film? Was it a visual album? What’s a visual album, again? And how the heck is it related to The Lion King?

Never fear, confused Beyoncé fans, because I am here to help. Read on to find out exactly what Black Is King by Beyoncé is about and exactly how long the Black Is King runtime is.

What is Black Is King by Beyoncé about?

Black Is King is a visual album that accompanies Beyoncé’s 2019 soundtrack album, The Lion King: The Gift. If you’re confused by the term “visual album,” I don’t blame you, given that Beyoncé popularized the term to, in her case, mean a roughly feature-length experimental film set to her album. It’s essentially a series of music videos, with spoken word interludes in between.

There is also The Lion King connection. The album that accompanies Black Is King, which is The Lion King: The Gift, was an album curated by Beyoncé for the 2019 photorealistic remake of The Lion King. It features dialogue spoken by voice actors from the film, like Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen as Timon and Pumbaa, and James Earl Jones as Mufasa. Those audio bites are also featured in Black Is King.

Though the music videos are not really connected, there is a very loose Black Is King plot. Beyoncé picks up a baby that was in basket, Moses-style, at the beginning of the film. It’s implied that this baby is Simba. From there, Simba—played by child actor Folajomi Akinmurele, and later played by Nyaniso Dzedze as an adult—is often seen in the interludes or in the music videos. He runs in fear from Mr. Eazi in “DON’T JEALOUS ME,” and dreams of being rich in “MOOD 4 EVA.” But again, it’s a very loose plot. Like any good music video, it’s mostly about the visuals.