Why Solange Actually Did This to Jay Z

2024 marked the tenth year since the infamous incident that happened between Beyonce, Solange, and Jay-Z in the elevator.

It took place at a 2014 Met Gala after-party, and it was one of the first times that the world got a glimpse into the private life of the Carters. 

Beyonce’s Incriminating Lyrics About Infidelity 

The shocking attack has gone down as an unforgettable moment in pop culture history. 

Even Beyonce has owned the situation and has referenced it in her music, cementing its memory in the lyrics of her songs. 

In her remix of Flawless featuring Nicki Minaj, Beyonce famously sang about how things get messy when it’s a billion dollars on an elevator. 

And in her song Cozy, she warned people not to cross her sister, because she was ‘comfortable.’

Solange Has Her Sister’s Beyonce Back

Beyonce suggested that she appreciated her sister having her back.

And that fateful day in the elevator, she did very little to stop her sister from attacking her husband.

The Daily Mail shared the infamous CCTV footage of what happened ten years ago between Solange and Jay-Z.

From the moment she stepped in the elevator, Solange was taking shots at the rapper, and it was obvious that she was shouting all kinds of things at him.

Julius, Beyonce’s longtime bodyguard, did what he could to restrain Solange, but she was still using all her strength to try and get at Jay-Z.

Her anger was undeniable. 

Of course, photographers waiting outside the event had no idea what went down in the elevator moments before they took pictures of the trio leaving.

A report by PEOPLE included a paparazzi photo that a lot of people have claimed perfectly captured the way each of the three celebrities was probably feeling right after the incident. 

Beyonce was wearing a sort of smug smile on her face, Solange looked like she was not in the mood to be photographed, and a dazed Jay-Z was following them with his hand near his face. 

Social Media Users Speak Out About Famous Elevator Incident With Solange, Beyonce And Jay-Z

In a Reddit thread about the photograph, online users couldn’t help but comment on the photo that became so well-known after the surveillance video was released to the public.

One person wrote that something about that picture was still a work of art.

Somebody else said that the word iconic was overused, but they felt like this photo was truly iconic, in the sense that it would be remembered and talked about for decades to come.

Another user claimed that the picture was the very definition of “You never know what happens behind closed doors.”

Why Did Solange Attack Jay-Z On The Elevator?

But the burning question on everyone’s mind at the time was WHY did Solange attack Jay-Z?

It’s a question that still gets asked today. 

Though now, the world knows a lot more about it than we did ten years ago.

Of course, there are a number of theories about what exactly set Solange off that evening.

But something that most people can agree on is that it must’ve had something to do with Jay-Z’s infidelity.

Who Did Jay-Z Cheat On Beyonce With? 

Two years after the shocking incident in the elevator, Beyonce released her hit album Lemonade, which was littered with signs that she’d been cheated on. 

Her followers understood that Jay-Z must’ve been unfaithful to her.

And by putting two and two together, people theorized that this was the reason why Solange absolutely lost it with him.

In her song Sorry off of the album, Beyonce had her famous line: “He only want me when I’m not there, He better call Becky with the good hair.”

This led to a witch hunt, with everyone trying to guess who this Becky could be.

Was it Rihanna? Was it Rita Ora? Was it LIV the Rapper?

All of them fell under the public’s magnifying glass in the quest to discover who Jay-Z had been with.

But there was someone else who ended up being classed as the number one suspect. 

Fashion designer Rachel Roy.

She and Jay-Z first met when she started working as an intern at his and Damon Dash’s clothing company, Rocawear.

According to reports, Rachel was the reason why Beyonce’s sister attacked Jay-Z in the elevator.

Insider Speaks Out About Elevator Incident With Solange, Beyonce And Jay-Z 

An insider told PEOPLE that Solange was provoked by Rachel when she bumped into her at the Met Gala after-party on that fateful day.

The source went on to claim that toward the end of the night, Jay-Z said something inappropriate to Beyonce and her sister, and Solange snapped.

They alleged: “When they got in the elevator, it escalated quickly the way family tensions can. It got exceptionally heated the way family moments can.”

The insider highlighted that Solange was super protective of Beyonce.

Rachel Roy’s Cryptic Instagram Post 

A couple of years later, Rachel would come to seriously regret an Instagram post that she made just after Lemonade came out.

In the caption under a photo of herself, she wrote: Good Hair Don’t Care, which led to a social media invasion by people who were convinced that she’d basically admitted that she was Becky.

She made her social media private for a while, before eventually tweeting that she respected love, marriages, families, and strength.

Metro later reported that according to a source, ’Becky’ never really even existed. 

They explained that Becky was a combination of a couple of women.

The insider said: “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.”

Solange And Jay-Z Speak Out And Apologize About Elevator Incident 

Though Beyonce has really only ever talked about the elevator incident and her husband’s infidelity in her music, Solange and Jay-Z have been a little more vocal about it all.

First of all, the three celebrities released a joint statement not long after the CCTV footage came out.

It said that Jay-Z and Solange each assumed their share of responsibility for what had occurred and acknowledged their role in the private matter that had played out in public.

It also said that they both apologized to each other and had moved forward as a united family.

People speculated that the statement was something conjured up by their PR teams and it didn’t necessarily mean that Solange and Jay-Z had made up.

A CNN report revealed that Solange eventually spoke about what happened in an interview with Lucky magazine in the summer of 2014.

But she was noticeably vague with what she shared.

She simply explained that what was important was that she and her family were all good.

She said: “What we had to say collectively was in the statement that we put out, and we all feel at peace with that.”

Whether or not they’d really apologized and moved on behind closed doors, it was clear that it was the idea that the three of them wanted the public to believe.

The Carters As One Big Happy Family

A few weeks after the Met Gala, the celebrities’ PR teams once again tried to do some damage control.

The Shade Room shared photos of Beyonce, Jay-Z, and their family circulating in the press, which showed them all looking happy and comfortable together at a restaurant in New Orleans.

It was all smiles as Solange, her sister, and her brother-in-law posed together for a family photo along with the Knowles matriarch, Tina.

But the photo soon received criticism about how fake and staged it looked.

Over the next decade, there weren’t many photos of Solange and Jay-Z hanging out together.

But in 2021, Jay-Z and Solange went on a family vacation together.

They stayed on a private yacht in the Mediterranean, and were photographed by the paparazzi hungry to capture an intimate moment.

Which they did.

A photo came out of Solange and her brother-in-law hugging each other on the deck of the luxurious boat.

Online users speculated that it meant that they’d officially moved on from the violent incident that took place so many years ago.

Jay-Z Speaks Out About Solange

On an episode of the Rap Radar podcast, Jay-Z claimed that he and Solange had always had a great relationship.

He alleged that they’d only ever had that one disagreement, and that before and after it, they’d been cool.

Jay-Z also told the hosts that Solange was his sister – not his sister-in-law, but his sister.

The Metro insider said that Jay-Z had known Solange since she was in high school, so he understood why she was standing up for her sister and why she had to say something when she saw that something was wrong.

The source continued: “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.”