Just when we thought the Cowboy Carter era was riding off into the sunset, Beyoncé dropped a denim bombshell that’s got the entire Beyhive—and the fashion and music world—reeling. Beyoncé’s long-running REIIMAGINE campaign with Levi’s has just concluded with its fourth and final installment: “Chapter 4: The Denim Cowboy.”
This 90-second visual spectacular merges the previous three ads, “Launderette,” “Pool Hall,” and “Refrigerator,” into one explosive anthem to denim, heritage, and the icon’s creative persona.
Directed yet again by Melina Matsoukas, the piece is loaded with Easter eggs: Beyoncé rides into the scene on horseback, recreating the Rancho-style visuals of Cowboy Carter, and later takes off on a motorcycle, sparking fans to speculate that her next musical chapter may shift toward rock.
A standout moment: a revisit to the iconic 1991 Levi’s “Pool Hall” ad with Timothy Olyphant, where Beyoncé playfully wins a pair of Levi 501s. Then, she swaggers off on that motorcycle—symbolically trading the old West for a younger, edgier frontier. Watch below:
More Than Just Pretty Jeans
This isn’t Beyoncé playing dress-up. Levi’s reported a $1.4 billion Q2 sales haul, and Levi’s CEO Michelle Gass credited Beyoncé’s campaign momentum as a key driver. Critics have praised the ads as “a masterclass” in selling style with substance, and even Sir John Hegarty has cited them as proof that some ads need to be long-form.
In The New Yorker, the campaign is framed as a powerful reclaiming of Americana through a Black female lens, effectively reclaiming cultural symbols and rewriting who gets to wear them.
But not everyone is here for the sparkle. Megyn Kelly slammed Beyoncé’s look as “fake” and “artificial,” accusing the campaign of trading authenticity for visual gloss and comparing it unfavorably to Sydney Sweeney’s rawer American Eagle spot.
The Inevitable Question: Act III Incoming?
With Act I: Renaissance (disco/pop), Act II: Cowboy Carter (country), this denim chapter feels like the dramatic, cinematic wrap-up, and fans are reading the motorcycle as a metaphor for a rock ‘n’ roll pivot.
Adding fuel to the fire is a mysterious timestamp, 9:04 PM, displayed during a segment titled “The Smoke.” With Beyoncé’s 44th birthday landing on September 4, fans suspect a new release or announcement may be incoming, one that steals the spotlight away from the country frontier and rides us straight into rock territory.
We shall see. Yes, we shall.
REELated:
Beyoncé and Levi’s turn up the heat with Chapter 3 of REIIMAGINE
