Jay-Z and Solange Knowles Elevator Fight

Submission 33,692

About

Jay-Z and Solange Knowles Elevator Fight was a physical altercation that took place between the celebrity rapper and his sister-in-law in an elevator after attending a Met Gala after-party at the Standard Hotel in New York City in May 2014. The scuffle was recorded on a surveillance camera in the elevator and subsequently released via TMZ, leading to much speculation about the state of Beyonce and Jay-Z’s marriage, as well as the state of their relationship with Solange.

Background

On May 12th, 2014, celebrity gossip site TMZ^[1] released an elevator surveillance video clip from the Standard Hotel which apparently shows Solange Knowles, an American singer-songwriter and the younger sister of Beyonce, slapping and punching a man identified as celebrity rapper and her brother-in-law Jay-Z, coming from a 2014 Met Gala after-party in New York City on May 5th, 2014.

Notable Developments

#WhatJayZSaidToSolange

The hashtag #WhatJayZSaidToSolage, which Twitter users used to make humorous speculations as to what could have sparked Solange's attack on her brother-in-law, was introduced the same day by Twitter user Wink Westwood^[4] at 12:18 PM EST.

Within an hour the hashtag became the top hashtag in the United States,^[2] and within two hours the hashtag^[3] had been tweeted out over 47,000 times. Round-ups of the tweets using the hashtag were featured on May 12th, 2014, on many sites including UpRoxx,^[5] Mashable^[6] and Buzzfeed.

Beyonce's Tattoo Removal

On May 13th, 2014, Oh No They Didn't^[12] published a photo which featured Beyonce attending a basketball game with Jay-Z on May 10th. A close up on her ring finger shows what appears to be scar tissue where a "IV " tattoo, which she had done to in honor of her wedding date^[13], once was.

The post went on to point out the singer had posted a picture of herself on her Tumblr^[14] which featured a band-aid on that finger on April 28th, 2014.

Solange's Instagram Account

On May 12th, several celebrity news sites^[10] reported that Solange had deleted every picture of Beyonce from her Instagram account^[9] except one, which was posted on February 9th, 2013. However, the same day, Buzzfeed^[11] reported that Solange's Instagram account features at least four pictures of her and her sister, and only one picture of Beyonce had been deleted.

On May 14th, Beyonce posted five happy pictures of herself and Solange via her Instagram account.^[7] This caused many bloggers and journalists to speculate^[8] Beyonce was trying to stop rumors that there are any problems between her and her sister.

On May 15th, Solange posted a childhood photo of herself and her sister as part of the #ThrowbackThursday hashtag. In less than 24 hours it gained over 26,000 likes.