One Swing of Beyoncé’s Hot Sauce Will Literally F You Up

Here’s a small detail I know I missed while getting caught up in the utterly world-breaking hour-long video for Beyoncé’s new album, Lemonade: that bat she uses to completely tear shit up? It’s name is Hot Sauce, which is a callback (technically a call-forward?) to the lyric in “Formation” that reads: “I got hot sauce in my bag / swag.” You’ll remember that “Formation” came out back in February, and while much of the song was dissected, analyzed, and annotated, this was a detail believed to be relatively innocuous. Genius.com contributors noted that it was likely a reference to NBA player Delonte West’s 2009 freestyle where he repeats “I got hot sauce in my bag.”

But, as we now know, it wasn’t just a bottle of Crystals, Tabasco, Frank’s, or [insert your hot sauce choice here]. Bey was actually talking about carrying around a badass literal instrument of destruction, one she uses to usher in what we can only hope is the end of the patriarchy. At the very least, in the video she uses it to obliterate parts of an entire city block. Keep some hot sauce in your bag, friend. It’s useful when you absolutely, positively have to “exhibit righteous misandry,” as The Verge’s Kaitlyn Tiffany so eloquently puts it. Hell yes.

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Jessica Lachenal

Jessica Lachenal is a writer who doesn’t talk about herself a lot, so she isn’t quite sure how biographical info panels should work. But here we go anyway. She's the Weekend Editor for The Mary Sue, a Contributing Writer for The Bold Italic (thebolditalic.com), and a Staff Writer for Spinning Platters (spinningplatters.com). She's also been featured in Model View Culture and Frontiers LA magazine, and on Autostraddle. She hopes this has been as awkward for you as it has been for her.

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