Last month I spoke with a confidential informant inside Beyoncé’s record label. The informant told me that Bey’s dad, Mathew Knowles, was essentially pushed out as her manager so her husband, fading rapper Jay Z, could take over her career.
According to my source, her father now feels vindicated that Beyoncé’s album, ‘4,’ is not the smash hit that everyone predicted it would be. “He’s happy,” said my source.
In an earlier post, I told you that my source said Jay Z and his boys (Live Nation) are A&R’ing Beyoncé “but they’re not doing a great job at it.” My source added that “This has been the worst (album) rollout I’ve ever seen on Beyoncé.”
My informant indicated that Mathew was somewhere laughing at Jay Z’s spectacular fail.
Mr. Knowles is an industry veteran who has a no-nonsense, old school business approach to managing his artists.
In an interview with the Associated Press, a vindicated Knowles said he blames Columbia Records for rushing out Beyonce’s album in a vacuum, which caused it to flop.
“They put out the record in a vacuum. 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 Beyonce is one of those artists.”
Knowles said that when Beyonce and Jay Z fired him, they let go of everyone on her management team.
“She changed almost every aspect of her business. The team ironically appeared to be a cross-pollination of Beyonce’s team, Roc Nation’s team, and Live Nation’s team, who ironically have the most to gain,” he said.
Knowles added that he has not spoken with his daughter since she terminated his contract.
When asked if there was a deliberate plan to take him out of the equation, he responded: “I’ll let people come to their own conclusion.”
