After Mathew Knowles filed papers last week, alleging that Live Nation Entertainment persuaded his daughter Beyoncé to believe he’d stolen money from her, the troubled music executive is now opening up about the controversy and claiming that things are amicable between him and his daughter.
According to Billboard, Knowles recently spoke with the Associated Press about the “negative comments” and theft accusations from Live Nation, Beyoncé’s record label, Columbia Records and her husband Jay-Z’s Roc Nation. Knowls vehemently denies the accusations against him.
“We absolutely have not taken any money from Beyoncé, and all dollars will be accounted for,” he told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday afternoon (July 14). “In no way have we stole money. Again, this about the people who have made these claims – they have to come into the light.”
Knowles went on to explain that he has no quarrel with his daughter and that things are amicable between the two.
“The relationship with Beyoncé is extremely amicable. I want to make that clear. Where there’s concern is the people that she’s doing business with,” he said. “I’m challenging all of these folks on integrity, professional integrity.”
As Knowles explains, he doesn’t believe that Beyoncé fired him over the theft allegations, but shares that she has completely revamped her business team, whom he implies wanted (and seemingly succeeded) to break up his business relationship with his daughter.
“She changed almost every aspect of her business,” said Knowles, adding, “The team ironically appeared to be a cross-pollination of Beyoncé’s team, Roc Nation’s team, and Live Nation’s team, who ironically have the most to gain,”
Despite his implications, Knowles wouldn’t directly accuse Beyoncé’s new team of conspiring to oust him from her business, saying that “I’ll let people come to their own conclusion.”
What Knowles would discuss with certainty was his daughter, sharing that he and Beyoncé haven’t spoken directly about the theft accusations, but that he proposed to her that they settle the issue in court.
“The only way we will be able to understand this is through a court of law. That’s the only way either one of us will be clear if someone in our camps did something that was not correct.”
Knowles also spoke of Beyoncé’s current album, 4. Although the album has sat atop the Billboard 200 chart for the last two weeks, it has noticeably failed to produce a massive hit single like her previous albums have. According to Knowles, Beyoncé’s new camp is to blame.
“They put out the record in a vacuum,” he said, adding that her success came despite setbacks. “It makes you believe that there are some artists that don’t need radio. There are some records that don’t need a record label, and Beyoncé is one of those artists,”
Despite his love and pride for his daughter, Knowles revealed that he and Beyoncé have, unfortunately, not spoken since she fired him as her manager.
“We have not had that conversation,” said Knowles. –nicholas robinson
