In August 2015, The New York Times pointed out a somewhat surprising fact about Beyoncé, one of the most famous artists in the world: She hadn't spoken directly to a member of the media (face-to-face) since 2013. For her September 2015 Vogue cover story, Beyoncé participated in a photo and video shoot. The accompanying essay is a classic write-around, meaning that even for Vogue, Beyoncé would not speak. For all of these reasons, we were basically at the edge of our seats when we read Beat Magazine's preview of its new issue, which features none other than Beyoncé "Seen But Not Heard" Knowles on the cover — along with an interview.
Today, Beat dropped even more images from the cover shoot, along with some tantalizing quotes from the interview. This isn’t what actually got us all hot and bothered about the feature, though. What really spiked our investigative journalism ears was the use of phrases like "Here [Beyoncé] is talking about success and fear" and "Here she is chatting about which Beyoncé era she'd go dressed as for Halloween."
Sure, Bey's responses are interesting — for the record, she'd go as "Destiny's Child Survivor era with the army fatigues. Or maybe Bootylicious with the gold tooth and pink tips in my hair." But, let's pause for a second to review the words that were used there.
1. TALKING
2. CHATTED Did Beyoncé break her silence and speak to author Michael Cragg? We had to know, so we emailed Cragg. It turns out that no; he did not speak directly to Beyoncé. The interview was conducted via email, which now encompasses the words "talk" and "chat," it seems. Cragg was incredibly kind and answered a few of our most prying questions about emailing with a global icon, who he believes responded to all of his questions himself (rather than having an assistant do it for her). "She's so in control of everything she does and what goes out that it just wouldn't happen. Plus, there were emojis in the email, and emojis are incredibly personal," Cragg tells Refinery29. Cragg also thinks Bey's answers offer a subtextual hint at what we have to look forward to from her next musically. "I know the questions are on the sillier side and a bit more abstract, but her answers show a different side to her — a more relaxed and carefree side. I have no idea what's coming next musically, but I think the shoot and the quotes hint at something more playful and fun." Even when Beyoncé doesn't speak out loud, her words contain multitudes. (Beat)
2. CHATTED Did Beyoncé break her silence and speak to author Michael Cragg? We had to know, so we emailed Cragg. It turns out that no; he did not speak directly to Beyoncé. The interview was conducted via email, which now encompasses the words "talk" and "chat," it seems. Cragg was incredibly kind and answered a few of our most prying questions about emailing with a global icon, who he believes responded to all of his questions himself (rather than having an assistant do it for her). "She's so in control of everything she does and what goes out that it just wouldn't happen. Plus, there were emojis in the email, and emojis are incredibly personal," Cragg tells Refinery29. Cragg also thinks Bey's answers offer a subtextual hint at what we have to look forward to from her next musically. "I know the questions are on the sillier side and a bit more abstract, but her answers show a different side to her — a more relaxed and carefree side. I have no idea what's coming next musically, but I think the shoot and the quotes hint at something more playful and fun." Even when Beyoncé doesn't speak out loud, her words contain multitudes. (Beat)