Beyonce and Jay Z always seemed like the most untouchable celebrity couple, typically presented as crazy in love when they weren’t drunk in love and, most importantly, notoriously private.
Well, that all changed around 10 years ago today with the release of a slightly grainy, black-and-white CCTV clip of a shocking showdown in an elevator – a lift, for us Brits – between Jay Z and his sister-in-law Solange after the Met Gala.
What were they fighting about? Why did Beyonce stand as still as a statue and not intervene? What does Julius know?? (That’s Beyonce’s loyal longtime bodyguard for the uninitiated.)
For many of us who have spent entirely too many hours pouring over every frame trying to dissect the chaos in the video, those are just some of the burning questions we’ve asked over the past 10 years since the incident happened on May 5, 2014.
Those three minutes of unprecedented scenes immediately became ingrained in pop culture history and served as a pretty stark reminder that ultimately, even with their billion-dollar empire and all the success between them, Beyonce, Jay Z and Solange are just a regular family who argue like the rest of us (just much, much richer).
As it was such an iconic moment in celebrity culture, it’s only right that we look back at exactly how the drama unfolded – and where Jay Z’s relationship with Solange stands now…
The CCTV clip was gripping from the start.
The opening moments showed Beyonce stepping into the lift and waiting patiently in a corner; it was a few seconds before she was followed by the rest. Suddenly, Solange walked in and it was immediately clear to see that she was quite heated, wasting no time in pouncing on Jay Z after he followed her in, pointing her finger in his face and clearly saying some strong words.
Julius, who sprung to action quickly and pressed the emergency button to stop the lift around the 12th floor, did his best to restrain Solange in the opposite corner but she was still doing her best to try to get at her brother-in-law.
Then, in perhaps the most shocking part of the whole saga, Solange – who is still being held back by Julius in the very confined space – flings her leg out and kicks Jay Z prompting Beyonce to move from her statue position and stand in front of her husband as protection. It appeared that tensions had simmered down but Solange and Jay Z found another way to get at each other even after the doors had opened.
Incredible photos emerged of the moment the group walked out of the elevator with Jay Z holding a hand to his hand, presumably where Solange made contact, Beyonce with a professional smile on her face and Solange refusing to hide her anger and looking positively miffed.
From the pictures, you’d have no clue of the pure carnage that was going on in the lift moments before as the trio looked relatively poised and collected.
In this day and age, so many scandals come and go with the wind; very few have real staying power in the microwave nature of social media. However, elevator-gate happened at a time when everything was magnified and this drama remained the subject of conversations and memes for weeks and even months leading up to the release of Beyonce’s Lemonade in April 2016.
One song on the album, Sorry, was particularly illuminating in light of what we knew about the tension between Beyonce, Jay Z and Solange. It was widely speculated that the elevator fight was down to Solange confronting Jay Z – real name Shawn Carter – about his alleged cheating and Sorry only fuelled the rumours to a stunning degree.
‘He only want me when I’m not there, He better call Becky with the good hair… He better call Becky with the good hair,’ Beyonce sings in the outro coining an iconic pop culture term.
‘Who is Becky with the good hair?’ must surely be one of the most Googled searches ever.
Various female celebrities found themselves subjected to rumours that they could be Jay Z’s mistress, with Rihanna, Rita Ora and Rachel Roy among those who were the centre of speculation. However, most denied it and distanced themselves from the scandal leaving the identity of ‘Becky’ a mystery.
Who is this woman?
Well, according to an insider, ‘Becky’ doesn’t really exist.
‘Becky was a combination of women and some of them even went as far as to release diss tracks about her in response,’ the source told Metro.co.uk. ‘The whole thing was upsetting because some were women Beyonce knew but it strengthened her bond with Michelle [Williams], Kelly [Rowland], Angie Beyince and Solange.’
Since then, Jay Z and Solange have barely been seen together but it’s believed that the family have moved past the drama of 10 years ago.
‘The incident was traumatic but they were ultimately able to move past it because everyone took accountability for what happened,’ the insider said.
‘Jay Z has known Solange since she was in high school and so he understood why she was standing up for her sister and had to say something when she saw something was wrong. Ultimately, the couple saw what happened as an opportunity for them to come clean about things they were struggling with and Solange helped them do that.’
Beyonce may have seemed silent in the lift but she certainly spoke up after and was able to find humour in the drama. Or, as she’d say, turn lemons into Lemonade.
‘Of course sometimes s**t go down when it’s a billion dollars on a elevator!’ she quipped on her Flawless remix with Nick Minaj.
And a word of warning about Solange on Renaissance track Cosy: ‘Might I suggest you don’t f**k with my sis/ Cause she comfortable.’
Wouldn’t dream of it, Bey!
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