6 0
Drum: COVER FEATURE
lost out in the Star Search finals in 1992, hearts sank
as an over-made-up Beyoncé and co. looked
distraught at having come so close to the fame
and then seen it snatched away.
been no misappropriation of funds and that two
members of the group, the background singers
LeToya and LaTavia, decided to fire the manager
without discussing it with the other members.”
Flash forward four years to 1996 and the group, now
christened Destiny’s Child find themselves on the
verge of having to call it a day after losing their
record deal with Columbia Records. Daddy Knowles
steps in and puts it all on the line to keep the dream
going. He puts the family home on the market to
finance the group’s endeavours. In a subsequent
interviews, Destiny Child’s chief stylist (and
Beyoncé’s mother) Tina Knowles admits the
couple’s union was in jeopardy due to her husband’s
dogged pursuit of the big time for his offspring. “We
lost our house shortly after my husband left his job
to manage the girls under their first record deal.
Then we lost that deal.
Even though she hid the strain well at the time,
Beyoncé later revealed she was hurt by the way the
public saw the split in the group and subsequent
upheaval when replacement member Farrah Franklin
also left due to ‘creative differences’. Lowering her
gaze and dropping the sexy southern drawl a notch,
the woman who gave the world the term
‘bootylicious’ admits, “I think now people
understand. When the group went through the
changes, I got the blame. I understand why, but it
was unfair.”
“I am a daddy’s girl. I love my
mother but everybody knows
I’m a daddy’s girl.”
Mathew would spend $ 5,000 of our money on a
photo shoot, while I was working 16 hours a day to
support us. I felt like the group was more important
to him than his family. So we separated for six
months. But we were miserable apart. We got back
together and never let money separate us again.”
Whilst Mathew Knowles is not the first father with
a dream for his talented offspring, like Earl Woods,
the father of record-breaking golf supers tar Elgin
‘Tiger’ Woods and Richard Williams who introduced
the tennis world to the power of Venus and Serena
Williams, the public never seems to understand
where vision ends and tunnel vision begins.
When payback for the group sacrifice came,
Matthew’s determination paid multi-platinum
dividends. Within 18 months of gambling the
family’s future, the four ladies of DC were well
on their way to becoming household names with
Beyoncé the stand-out lead.
Anyone looking for cracks within the recently –
reformed DC fold will be disappointed. Beyoncé and
the rest of the band praise Mathew’s skills as mentor
and the rest of the group praise Beyonce’s talents.
Kelly Rowland literally gushes about the talent that
Mathew built. “I think that Beyoncé is a very strong
person and the good thing about the group is that
everyone knows their role. She is very responsible
and she realizes that. What I like about Beyoncé is
she is not just a lead singer; she’s not stuck up or
anything. Beyoncé is one of the most beautiful
people I know and I’m just very blessed to have
someone like that in my life.” Q uite.
When LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett rocked
the carefully captained DC boat in 2000, Mathew
Knowles’s reaction was swift and final. As the
group’s manager he issued a statement that read,
“I think the real truth will come out of the court
proceedings. I can very clearly say that there has
Whatever internal jealousies might be entertained
behind closed doors, in the heat of the media
scrutiny, Beyoncé reigns as DC leader. Her solo
credentials are impressive; five Grammy Awards and
the honor of being the first African-American
woman and only the second woman to win the