Obviously, the pool of writers and producers from which Beyoncé selected her collaborators was talented. However, many of them were shortsighted in their ambitions, their skills not venturing beyond the realm of hip-hop and/or so-called neo-soul forms. By her second solo album, a music career the mammoth size of Beyoncé’s was still sorely missing a signature song, an uptempo number or memorable ballad the whole world could sing. “Crazy in Love” was close, but some critics still didn’t feel it would stand the test of time. Finding such a song is among the duties of an executive producer who is not the artist, an entity able to stand outside the project and know what it’s missing. Had such a seasoned executive producer been on board for B’Day, no doubt he or she would have pushed Beyoncé and her collaborators to reach deeper than just “Déjà Vu,” a punchy track later held up by her supporters as being a more organic sound for her. The truth about it, though, was that despite its heavy bass guitar and bold horn riffs, not even a cameo from Jay Z could save it from mediocrity.
“Irreplaceable,” which Beyoncé cowrote and produced with the artist Ne-Yo and the team of Stargate, definitely redeems the album, though. It’s a folksy hip-hop anthem about a woman who finds courage enough to end a long-term relationship with a man. Beyoncé’s belittling lyric—“To the left, to the left / Everything you own in a box to the left”—immediately became a line of empowerment for women going through a breakup. If there was any song close to being the Beyoncé song on B’Day, it would have to be this one.
“Irreplaceable” would prove to be the collection’s big hit single, going to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it would remain for ten consecutive weeks. It went on to become the bestselling U.S. single of 2007, selling nearly five million copies and downloads, and helping B’Day ultimately sell more than eight million copies worldwide.
It didn’t matter that upon B’Day’s release, national music critics were divided in their opinions; led by “Déjà vu,” the first single release, followed by “Ring the Alarm,” “Irreplaceable,” “Get Me Bodied,” and “Green Light,” the album quickly went to number one in America. It would also go on to earn a 2007 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album.
Alex
While Beyoncé seemed to be marginalizing Mathew in her career, he was about to embark on an unusual adventure of his own, and one that most definitely did not include her—or her mother.
Whatever secrets Mathew and Tina Knowles shared—whatever understanding they had come to and however they defined “husband and wife”—was something between the two of them alone. While the specific parameters of their marriage remained opaque to the outside world, what was clear to all was that the Knowleses were living successful, if not also largely separate, lives. When one considers the overwhelming financial struggles they endured during Girls Tyme’s early days, it boggles the mind to take note of the rewards that came their way with the success of Destiny’s Child and Beyoncé. By 2007, the couple was truly prosperous, with untold millions in the bank, along with their own thriving businesses—Mathew’s in career management and Tina’s in fashion design. Mathew had done very well for them both. He usually wasn’t interested in risky asset allocation, always a puzzlement to attorneys and accountants who believed that the bigger the risk, the bigger the gain.
The main investment in Mathew’s and Tina’s life together, though, had most certainly been in the nurturing of Beyoncé, her brand and her career. She was a product of both of them in every sense of the word—and that truth would forever bind them. His life had been all about creating, producing, and promoting her. Now, in late middle age, he seemed to need time to explore his own identity, which may explain his relationship with Alex-Sandra Wright, known to her friends and family as Alex.
It started off as an exciting romance for Mathew. Maybe it was unorthodox, but as we have seen, Mathew and Tina never really had a conventional marriage. Women had always found him irresistible but by the end of 2007, he seemed to be looking for something more substantial. While he had known many women, likely none was as outspoken or independent as Alex. Of course, the irony was that for many years Mathew had butted heads with just this type of formidable woman—yet he was also strangely attracted to them.
Mathew met Alex in September 2007 when she was working for Microsoft. She was one of the company’s brightest and most experienced staffers in its successful branding division. Knowles and an entourage of about ten people had flown from Houston to Microsoft headquarters in Seattle to meet with the firm about branding possibilities, not just for Beyoncé but for Solange too, whom Mathew was still also managing. Now signed to Polydor in conjunction to Mathew’s Music World, Solange was preparing to release her sophomore album, Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams, a masterful throwback to the identifiable sounds of the 1960s and ’70s. Mathew—who shared co–executive producer credit with Solange—had a number of carefully conceived marketing plans in mind for the album. In fact, it would be a bona fide hit when released, charting at number nine and selling a quarter of a million copies. Finally, it seemed that Solange was coming into her own as an artist of great depth and unexpected creativity.
As Mathew and his crew sat in one of the corporate offices listening to long-winded speeches touting the Microsoft brand, he couldn’t take his eyes off Alex. At thirty-six, she was quite attractive, a shapely African-American beauty with long dark hair and penetrating, rich brown eyes. She was also on her laptop computer throughout the entire meeting, which visibly annoyed Mathew. He preferred that people not multitask, that they devote all of their attention to a single purpose. At one point, a song by Beyoncé began to play on the sound system, but clumsily rearranged as homogenized elevator music. It piqued Mathew’s attention. “Who licensed that song?” he demanded to know as he bolted from his chair. No one was quite sure. His energy was so big, though, there was no way to ignore him. People went scrambling about, trying to find an answer to his question.
After the meeting, Mathew was scheduled to tour the Microsoft office. Looking down from his six-foot-six frame into her little work cubicle, he asked Alex to accompany him. She turned him down, explaining that she was busy, and then gave him her business card. He went on his way, but—true to his obsessive nature—began to bombard her with telephone calls, leaving copious messages on her voice mail. She was taken aback by his persistence, never having met anyone quite so determined. Finally, later that day, she returned his calls. They made plans to meet at the W Hotel that night in downtown Seattle. By this time, Alex had Googled Mathew in order to know exactly who it was with whom she was dealing.
“From a branding standpoint,” she told him when she saw him again, “you really have your work cut out for you.”
“What are you saying?” he asked. He seemed genuinely interested.
“Well, there’s all of this stuff out there that says you’re a real bully,” she explained. “Do you really want to come across as a gangster? The Suge Knight of R&B? It’s really not a good look for you, Mathew.”
Alex Wright was born in Montreal in 1971 and raised in Alberta. She comes from an educated family; her parents were both doctors educated at McGill University. In fact, her mother was the first black woman ever to graduate from McGill. Her grandfather was the first black professor of pharmacology there. One brother, Chris, is a neurologist educated at Harvard, the other, Jonathan, an alumnus of Columbia Law School. Alex attended the University of Washington, majoring in communications. After moving to Los Angeles, she was an actress for a short time before beginning a successful career in marketing and branding. Her credits are wide-ranging; she has been associated with acts such as Run-D.M.C., Brian McKnight, Eddie Van Halen, Prince, Stevie Wonder, and Aretha Franklin. She was recruited by Microsoft in August 2007 to handle the PR and marketing of Microsoft’s Zune product, its answer to Apple’s iPod. Three months into her tenure at Microsoft, she was selected to deliver keynote addresses with Steve Ballmer on entertainment and technology, which she did with great suc
cess.
About an hour after they met in the lounge at the W Hotel, Mathew began to amp up his flirtation with Alex. Suddenly the earlier barrage of phone calls made more sense to her. Cocktails together ended with a very awkward kiss in the parking lot.
Mathew spent the next five days calling Alex until she finally agreed to see him again—but only if he submitted to having a dim sum dinner with her family and friends, a Sunday tradition for them. He agreed; his limousine dropped him off in front of the Chinese restaurant. No one present, other than Alex, knew that Mathew was Beyoncé’s father when he walked into the eatery and joined the group. “Most people there wouldn’t have even known Beyoncé’s last name,” said her brother Jonathan Wright, who was present. Still, Mathew completely captivated the crowd, winning them all over with his magnetic personality. It was then that Alex felt her heartstrings being tugged by him. “That’s when I think I knew I was starting to fall for him,” she said.
Over the next few weeks and then months, the relationship between Mathew and Alex intensified. They’d both happened upon someone who made them happy, and they just wanted to enjoy it. “When I got to know his story, I was more than intrigued,” she recalled. “I so admire self-made men, and Mathew is nothing if not that. I saw that he’s an innovator in every way.”
“He became my sister’s boyfriend and we considered him family right away,” says Jonathan Wright. “I also looked at him as a mentor. I asked him how he got into the business and he told me this amazing story of how he got into managing Beyoncé, the way he went about self-educating so he could be among the best in the field. I didn’t have access to a lot of successful older black men, so, yeah, I had great admiration for him.”
Alex and the rest of her family were aware that Mathew was married. However, he made it clear to them that despite his marital status, he was a free man. Alex understood Mathew’s marital predicament, though. She had no judgment about it. “I come from a family that does not get divorced,” Alex said. “Money does not divorce. Also, coming from a successful black family, I understood that Mathew looked at divorce as a sign of weakness.”
Very quickly, Mathew and Alex became a couple in pretty much every way other than in marriage. “I would see him just about every day,” she concluded, “and it would be that way for the next two years of my life.”
About to Blow?
By 2007, Beyoncé Knowles had been performing for at least the last twenty-two years, completely dedicated to being a vocalist of high standards and quality, always striving for unconditional perfection, never settling for anything less. Like her father, she had an obsessive temperament when it came to work; she simply couldn’t relax. She always had so much to do, and she was determined to get it all done, no matter what it took. Her career was hard work, but that had always been true. It had definitely paid off for her. She’d never been surprised by her success, either. It had always felt somehow preordained. “How would you like me to describe you?” Australian television personality Liam Bartlett asked her in a March 2007 interview. “A legend in the making,” she quickly answered. He was a little taken aback. “A legend?” he asked. She nodded and said, “Yeah.” He smiled. “That’s big,” he remarked. “I said, ‘in the making,’ ” she clarified. By 2007, all modesty aside, it did seem that the way she and Mathew had thus far masterminded her career was definitely one for the record books.
In April 2007, Beyoncé would embark on her third concert tour, The Beyoncé Experience, along with her all-female ten-piece band, the Suga Mamas. Together, Beyoncé and Mathew selected the musicians and singers from nationwide auditions. By making them all women, she was sending a purposeful and strong feminist statement. Most of these same ladies would accompany Beyoncé on her subsequent tours as well, including 2009–10’s I Am . . . World Tour, 2013–14’s Mrs. Carter Show World Tour, and 2014’s On the Run Tour with Jay Z.
The rehearsals for The Beyoncé Experience began in March 2007, shortly after she wrapped up work on a new Samsung commercial in New York. A complicated show with numerous props and costume changes, in many ways it was a logistical nightmare. An entire volume could be written on the preparation and execution of this exciting multimedia presentation. Somehow, though, Beyoncé managed to pull it all together, as always. She’d always been an excellent leader, her positivity and decisiveness trickling down to everyone in her employ. “She’s completely relentless in her pursuit of perfectionism,” her creative director, Todd Tourso, would say in years to come. “It sounds cheesy, but that’s why I’m willing to work so hard for her. When you have this type of leadership and muse and mentor, the sky’s the limit.”
“I had a friend attend a rehearsal, and afterwards, he said to me, ‘Wow. She can be a real pain in the ass, can’t she?’ ” said one member of her crew. “ ‘She’s so anal! How do you deal with it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, she can be tough, all right. But she’s as tough on herself as she is on everyone else, tougher even.’ ”
“You’re way too hard on yourself,” Jay told Beyoncé one day at rehearsal in front of some of those working with her on The Beyoncé Experience. It wasn’t going well that day, and he could see that she was suppressing her annoyance, maybe even her anger. “It’s too much, Bey. Stop pretending like it’s not,” he told her. He suggested that she needed to try to release some of the tension that was interfering with her peace of mind, even her joy for the work. “Maybe you need to throw some shit around,” he suggested.
She looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Throw some shit around?” Obviously, that had never been her style. It was Jay’s, though, and it worked for him. If it took a temper tantrum to straighten things out at a rehearsal, so be it. In fact, Beyoncé had been watching Jay conduct his career for many years, and even though his show wasn’t as complex in its execution as hers, he definitely seemed more relaxed while planning it. “Jay is so cool,” she would say. “He can just stand onstage completely still, and the audience will go nuts,” she told Giant magazine. “Me? I have to work it. I’m shaking it and throwing it and rolling around on the floor.”
“I don’t know what to do, Jay-Jay,” Beyoncé said, using one of her pet names for him. “Just be you,” he told her. “Stop trying so hard. Stop trying to please.” Even though there were at least a hundred people present in the arena, for a few moments it looked to outsiders as if the two felt they were completely alone. Jay whispered in her ear as Beyoncé listened, smiled, and nodded. He comforted her and talked softly to her until he felt she was ready to continue with her rehearsal. Usually Beyoncé is unflappable; meltdowns are rare for her. No matter the stress, she has been in show business so long that she can usually handle it. Those who cared about her were happy to know that she had someone in her life she could turn to during those rare bad moments, especially since she seemed to be marginalizing Mathew these days. Not only did Jay truly care about her well-being and want her to be happy, but he seemed to take seriously the responsibility of helping her get through tough times. Eventually she was able to pull away from him and return to work, now seeming reenergized.
“I’m still trying to learn that I don’t have to kill myself and be so hard on myself and be so critical and [that] I can smell the roses,” she would later say. “I don’t want to never be satisfied. I don’t think that’s a healthy way to live.”
Always a people pleaser, she was still worried about how she was being perceived by others, even strangers. “In a way, she had way more heart than Jay,” said Choke No Joke. “I’ve been with Beyoncé a lot of times where she would try to sign every goddamn autograph, and if she missed a few she’d have the limo driver circle the block and go back and finish. Jay? You ain’t gettin’ no autograph from him unless he’s good and ready, and if he misses you, better luck next time. He ain’t circling the block for no fan. In fact, it would annoy him that Beyoncé was so afraid some of her fans might not like her. ‘Damn, girl!’ he’d say. ‘Don’t you think you give ’em enough?’ ”
When Beyoncé w
ould make certain changes in her behavior as suggested by Jay, he realized that a major motivation for her to do so was to please him. While he had always been the kind of man who wanted his own way, he was definitely changing, his own personal journey unfolding at the same time as Beyoncé’s. In fact, from this time onward in his relationship with her, Jay would never cease to amaze people who expected him to be completely misogynistic because of his hip-hop background and reputation. It was as if his love for Beyoncé helped him understand that the bigger personal victory for her would be to make changes for the sake of her own growth, not just to make him happy.
Whereas many men in his position would have been happy to be with a woman who would only do his bidding, the more invested Jay became in Beyoncé, the more he was able to extract himself from the equation and want what was best for her own well-being. “He’s basically nothing at all—and I mean absolutely nothing—like what you would expect him to be,” said one of his close friends. “Sure, he has the swagger, he has the bad boy vibe, he has the dangerous gangster thing. But when it came to Beyoncé Knowles, all of that shit had pretty much melted away by 2007. Everyone could see that she’d became his greatest concern.”
Of course, Jay’s best efforts aside, in many ways Beyoncé was still that same little girl trying her very best to please Dad. One of the major reasons she wanted The Beyoncé Experience to be a success was because she still wanted to make Mathew proud. She wanted to please her fans, too, of course, but that goal was so closely connected to satisfying her father, it had become difficult to separate the two.
Ironically, Beyoncé actually did have Mathew’s approval. She just didn’t know it. Rarely did he express it, or at least that has been her memory of things. However, the truth was that he was exceedingly proud of her, and always had been. Everyone in his life knew it, even if she didn’t.
Becoming Beyoncé Page 44