New York Daily News
Beyoncé’s father knows who “Becky with the good hair” is. After the singer’s new visual album debuted on HBO April 23, fans have been trying to figure out who Jay Z cheated on Bey with. Now, Mathew Knowles is setting the record straight.
“Let me tell you who she’s talking about. Can I tell you who she’s talking about? She’s talking about you,” the fashion designer’s dad told E! News. “You put that in context for you personally. She’s talking about you and everybody that is you, that’s who she’s talking about.”
In other words, the songs on “Lemonade” are a reflection of universal themes that many Black women go through in life, including the ups and downs in a relationship.
“I think that’s the beauty of her creativity and I think that’s what makes it so special, is that it relates to everyone,” Knowles tells the network. “Every one of us have been disappointed before and have had to go through the grieving process of anger and, you know, disappointment and then acceptance and forgiveness. And I think that’s why this again is touching so many people because it’s universal. Everybody can relate to it.”
Knowles’ discussion of his daughter’s new music doesn’t end there. He visited the radio show Make It Plain April 25 to discuss allusions of abuse in “Lemonade.”
In a spoken word portion of the album – which Entertainment Tonight reports are written by Somali-British poet Warsan Shire – Beyoncé asks, “Are you a slave to the back of his hand? Am I talking about your husband or your father?” The song “Daddy Lessons” follows.
When asked if that line refers to him, Knowles denies it.
“I can say I have never in my life hit my daughter. So, she has never been a slave to the back of my hand because I didn’t believe in that.”
Regarding his relationship with the singer’s mom, Tina Knowles, serving as inspiration for the album, Mathew tells the Sirus XM radio show “there’s no way we can get into the mind of Beyoncé. Only Beyoncé can answer specifically who she was talking to…I would rather not get into speculation. My answer is I don’t know.”
As for his reported estranged relationship with his daughter, Knowles says the media has it wrong.
“The media would have you think I’ve never spoke to Beyoncé,” he tells the radio hosts. “But as you can see in the documentary, me and Blue Ivy was playing. I’m a grown up. I’m 64 years old. It doesn’t bother me what people say about me. I know the facts.”
