Jay-Z talks Solange elevator incident for the first time: ‘We had one disagreement ever’

Rapper and music mogul Jay-Z says all is well between him and his sister-in-law, singer Solange Knowles, in his first specific public comments discussing the 2014 physical altercation in which she attacked him in a widely seen elevator security video.

“We had one disagreement ever,” Jay-Z, 47, said on a RapRadar.com podcast Friday, accessible only on the streaming-music subscription service Tidal, of which is he is part-owner. “Before and after [the fight] we’ve been cool.”

“She’s like my sister,” the 21-time Grammy winner added of Knowles, 31. “I will protect her. That’s my sister, not my sister-in-law. My sister. Period.”

In the video that went viral in 2014, while inside an elevator Knowles, younger sister of Jay-Z’s wife, Beyoncé, attacks the rapper while the “Formation” singer looks on. Knowles continues to kick him after being pulled away by an apparent bodyguard. The man releases her after a full minute, but when the elevator reaches the lobby she attacks Jay-Z twice more, with Beyoncé finally inserting herself between the two.

TMZ.com, which originally posted the silent footage, said it was shot at Manhattan’s Standard Hotel following a party that May 5 after the annual Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“We’ve always had a great relationship,” Jay-Z in the new interview said of himself and Knowles, who has not commented publicly on his statements. “I fought my brothers and argued with my brothers my whole life. It just so happens, who we are, these things go into a different space. But it ain’t nothing.”

Days after the video was posted, the trio released a joint statement saying in part “that our family has worked through it. Jay and Solange . . . both acknowledge their role in this private matter that has played out in the public. They both have apologized to each other and we have moved forward as a united family.”

SEE PHOTOSJay-Z through the years