Today's leaked elevator surveillance video of Solange Knowles getting all Bad Girls Club on her brother-in-law Jay Z provided the world with all the receipts it needs that shit is fucked up in the Knowles-Carter family. But the real tea isn't the fight itself, but what could have possibly gone down between the two to make Solange kick her sister's husband in the balls. We explore three theories.
1.) Solange is a nasty drunk.
After the Met Gala it's the after-party, and after the party it's the hotel lobby—but first it's a melee in the elevator. Could Solange have just been over-served? The fight did take place at the end of the night, which is when people are usually at their drunkest.
Considered the "feisty" one of the two sisters, Solange isn't afraid to call people out, even if it burns bridges or leaves her looking like an asshole. Somebody with a quick temper could easily turn into a bad drunk.
With that being said, it doesn't seem like Solange was that wasted. First of all, she had the presence of mind to wait and unleash on Jay until they were all in the elevator, and not in public in front of everyone. Plus, wild drunken beasts looking for a fight tend to get just as mad at the person holding them back from the fight as they do at their target. Solange didn't go after Beyoncé's bodyguard Julius for interfering. She seemed with it enough to know exactly at whom to direct her anger. She also regained her composure enough to quickly and quietly walk to her car outside of the hotel.
2.) Jay Z insulted her as a mother.
The extended video of the elevator fight goes on for about four minutes, with Solange going back for seconds at one point. That's a long time to be at peak anger to the point of physical violence.
If it was something that Jay Z said to her that set Solange off, it would have to be something that really cut to the bone. Something had to truly move her to risk ripping her couture gown or losing a piece of her Lorraine Schwartz-borrowed jewelry or spitting on Beyoncé's Givenchy.
One thing that's guaranteed to set almost any mother off is calling her parenting into question. Add in some alcohol and things could get really ugly. Perhaps Solange was a little bit tipsy or conducting herself in some manner to which Jay Z took exception. Maybe he said something like, "Nice way for a mother to behave."
Sure, that's the kind of thing that could make a person lose their shit—but if that were really the case, wouldn't it make more sense for Solange to just tell him to fuck off and stay at the after-party and continue to drink? Why leave with the person who is judging you?
3.) She was sticking up for her sister.
Beyoncé and Solange have both intimated in the past that Solange is the more outspoken of the two and she doesn't mind going to bat for her big sister. The most striking thing about the elevator video is how calm Beyoncé appears—as though this is something that has happened before.
Why didn't she try to hold her sister back? Why did she step aside and let her sister high-kick her husband right in the chest? Why is she letting her sister scream at her husband without correcting her? Maybe because Beyoncé thinks Jay deserved Solange's wrath.
There have long been rumors about how Beyoncé and Jay Z's marriage is plagued with his infidelity. Those rumors have been fueled by Beyoncé's own songs which frequently reference it.
Take a look at the lyrics from her last few albums: "Ring the Alarm," "Me, Myself & I," or "No Angel." Even "Love on Top," which is an ostensibly sweet song, is about the complicated ups and downs of a longterm relationship in which her partner hadn't been making her a priority.
Solange's methods of attack are also interesting, and they indicate that Jay Z did something she felt was pretty reprehensible. She repeatedly tries to kick him in the crotch, she spits on him twice, she throws her handbag at him and when he hands her shoe back to her, she tries to beat him with it.
This is the first time that there was proof of the violence that goes on behind closed doors within this family (it's possibly hinted at in "Drunk in Love"), but there have been a number of blind items about it for years.
Here's one which originally appeared on BlindGossip.com in February 2013, shortly after Beyoncé performed at the Super Bowl:
Inside a green room at a recent big event. Three women, one man, all celebrities. Several relatives of one of the women were also in the room, along with a child or two, a couple of personal assistants and a few venue staffers. There was going to be a big audience, and nerves should have been riding high.
But the three women were all remarkably calm. Two were sitting quietly chatting with each other. The third woman was texting someone on her cell phone.
However, the man was not as calm. He was pacing back and forth, barking instructions at the third woman.
He became angry that she wasn't giving him her full attention, and he grabbed the mobile device out of her hands. He discovered that she was texting another man. He started going through all of her texts. His voice started out low and he was swearing: "You mother f*ing b*tch!" As he scrolled through the texts, his voice got louder and louder until he was screaming at her. "YOU MOTHER F*CKING BITCH!!! YOU MOTHER F*CKING BITCH!!!"
The venue staffers looked at each other nervously , but no one else in the room seemed surprised by the outburst. No one moved to defend the third woman.
Apparently, they didn't need to, because she jumped up and got in his face and started yelling and swearing right back at the man! She tried to grab the phone back from him, but he pushed her away and continued going through the phone and screaming at her, pushing her away, berating her, and started calling her every derogatory name for a woman in the book.
While it was shocking to the staffers that the two were going at each other so viciously, it was even more shocking to them that the two other women and the relatives and the personal assistants just sat there quietly the whole time, minding their own business through the screaming and the grabbing and the shoving! No one tried to shield the child/ren from what was going on, and no one tried to intervene in the fight. They have known the woman since she was single, and they have known her as part of a couple. The controlling behavior and the physical altercation and the swearing were all apparently just routine to them!
So, the next time you see this couple acting all sweet and loving and trusting and supportive and high class with each other in front of the cameras, know that it's apparently a whole different story behind the scenes…
The day after Solange and Jay Z's big fight, Beyoncé posted this cryptic prayer about relationships to her Instagram account:
But we probably never will get the truth about what really went down in that elevator. Just moments after that traumatic family event, a pissed-off Solange got in one car and a confused Jay Z was ushered into another. Beyoncé posed and smiled for the cameras, like nothing had happened.
Images via Splash