On November 2, 2016 black pop star Beyonce Knowles performed her country inspired song “Daddy Lessons” at the Country Music Awards in Nashville, Tennessee. The song, inspired by southern blues, New Orleans jazz, and American country is often read as a song about black masculinity and infidelity. Beyonce’s chorus, “My daddy warned me about men like you,” speaks to the legacies of broken black families. However, in this paper I want to suggest that “Daddy Lessons,” is as much about the 2nd amendment and black gun rights as it is about infidelity. In this paper, by doing a close reading of Beyonce’s references to the 2nd amendment I intend to draw connections between the song and the legacies of black power and the Black Panther movement. To draw
