A New York City hotel expressed shock on Monday that security camera footage of a fight in an elevator, apparently involving the rapper Jay Z and his sister-in-law Solange Knowles, ended up being posted on a celebrity website.
The video was published online on Monday by the California-based news outlet TMZ, which claimed the footage, taken from the inside of an elevator in Manhattan’s Standard hotel, showed an altercation between the pair as they were leaving a party there last week.
It was not known how TMZ obtained the material, which appeared to be recorded on a camera as it was played back on a security monitor.
The video apparently shows Solange Knowles lashing out at Jay Z while his wife, Beyoncé, stands by. The trio were leaving a 5 May party after the Met ball in the Boom Boom Room, the Standard’s rooftop club. There were no reported injuries.
The three-and-a-half minute video begins with a woman, apparently Beyoncé, entering the elevator, followed by her sister, her husband and a large second man, who appears to be a bodyguard.
After the elevator door closes, Solange attacks Jay Z, by TMZ’s account. She points in his face and appears to be speaking harshly to him, although there is no audio recording. Then she begins hitting and kicking him. The rapper defends himself before the large man gets the attacker in a bear hug, from which she momentarily escapes to take another big kick at her brother-in-law.
“We are shocked and disappointed that there was a clear breach of our security system and the confidentiality that we count on providing our guests,” the Standard Hotel said in a statement. Beyonce was rumored to have filmed a music video at the hotel last year.
TMZ is known for big scoops in gossip, including, recently, an audiotape of Los Angeles Clippers owner Don Sterling telling V Stiviano, who describes herself as his personal assistant, “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people.”
It’s not known if TMZ paid to obtain the video Pictures of Prince Harry playing strip billiards in August 2012 in a Las Vegas hotel were rumored to have been purchased for a mere $15,000.
