thank you very much for watching this "ac 360" special report. i'm anderson cooper in new york. have a great night. a family feud caught on tape. >> we see solange attack jay z and try and kick him. >> caught in the cross fire, pop superstar beyonce. >> no one expected this to happen to beyonce. >> a singer famous for being in control. from a secret album sensation. >> beyonce dropped an incredible album. >> to the worldwide stage. >> there is nobody else that is singing like she is. nobody else giving the energy that she's giving on stage. >> r&b royalty, fashion icon,

mother, and music mogul. tonight, "in the spotlight: beyonce." it is the last thing beyonce would have wanted. video posted on tmz of her superstar husband jay z being attacked by her sister solange in a hotel elevator. >> she completely went berserk. she's kicking, she's throwing her fists, slapping him. it is pretty brutal. >> carlos greer is a writer for "people". >> you can see beyonce's security sort of holding solange back, grasping her and trying to prevent her from attacking jay z. >> security not only tries to protect the rapper, but attempts to guard the famous couple's image. >> it looks like he presses a button to contain what is happening in the elevator in the

elevate soleevator so people do when they open the zbloor thdoo. >> beyonce stepped in and said, hey, don't talk to my sister, but jay z appeared to do nothing. didn't seem like he did enough to prevent the confrontation with rachel roy. and so by the time they were leaving, he apparently said something that solange thought was inappropriate to beyonce and to her and so that's when she flipped. >> later, in the video, solange attempts to kick jay z while she's being restrained. this time, beyonce, who has been surprisingly calm, moves between them. when the elevator finally opens, solange lashes out again. jay z exits, looking stunned. >> this was a huge surprise. i don't think anyone knew there was tension. >> they all walked to a waiting car. but jay decides to catch another ride home. >> probably wasn't planned they would leave separately.

usually when beyonce and jay z are at an event together, they leave together. >> the drama unfolds on one of the fashion world's biggest nights. >> the met gala is the premiere fashion party of the year. it is a huge charity event. this is the a-list party and one of the most exclusive parties in the city where you see tons of celebrities. >> all seemed well earlier in the evening. >> everyone was having a good time at the gala and at the after party, taking photos with lupita mingling and erykah badu was there and beyonce and solange were taking photos together. >> it is the image they work hard to uphold. >> you see beyonce when beyonce wants you to see her. >> howard bragman is a crisis communications expert. >> always looks impeccable. and when you see her, it is at the right event, it is supporting one of her causes, it is performing. >> beyonce is very guarded.

very private. and she does control the information that comes out about her and how it comes out. >> beyonce's brand is so carefully controlled, it was ironically the joke of an snl skit the saturday before the gala. >> tell me you wouldn't say something bad about beyonce. >> it is too late. they have come for him. >> in a fake trailer for fictional movie, anyone dissing the queen b is hunted down. >> a lot of people view beyonce as simply perfection. you know, she is the woman who has it all. she's beautiful, she's successful. and she pretty much can do anything. >> and she's been able to manage that image until now. >> this video is a huge deal. this is something they definitely did not want to go public. once the public saw it, this thing blew up on the internet. >> to quiet the conversation, beyonce, jay and solange referred cnn to a statement they

previously game to the associated press. saying jay and solange each assumed their share of responsibility for what has occurred. at the end of the day, families have problems and we're no different. we love each other and above all we're family. we put this behind us and hope everyone else will do the same. >> jay z and beyonce have the gold standard for images in the entertainment industry. they control their images very well. >> in fact, beyonce's latest album shows just how much she wants to be in control. in a spectacular surprise last december, she dropped a self-titled album of 14 songs. and 17 videos. it was one of the music world's best kept secrets that completely bypassed the industry's marketing machine. >> no one had ever seen an album released this way. she didn't have any radio promotion, she didn't even tell

people that this album was coming out. no one knew. the album sold out immediately. and in fact it broke records and everyone -- their jaws were pretty much dropped. >> she's taken charge of a career that skyrocketed her to the top. silencing her critics at every turn. like after her performance at president obama's second inauguration. ♪ >> did beyonce fake it at the inauguration? >> did she or didn't she lip-synch? and does it even matter? this was beyonce's response. posted to instagram. online and on air. >> i'm saying leave beyonce alone. >> she became a hot topic of conversation. >> i'm not surprised she did lip-synch. >> it turned out beyonce had used a prerecorded track. >> would you guys mind standing. >> at a press conference ten

days later -- ♪ o say can you see by the dawn's early light ♪ >> the punch line -- >> any questions? >> not likely. beyonce set tongues wagging again with her half time performance at the super bowl. >> the crowd's reaction when she stepped out on stage during halftime was, now the real show is going to start. >> june ambrose is a stylist to jay z and a friend of the couple. >> i felt like the football team was her opening act. >> beyonce has evolved into this being that you just expect greatness from to the point where greatness isn't good enough anymore. >> pop star neo collaborates with beyonce. >> there is nobody else singing like she is, nobody else giving the energy she's giving on stage, and much less doing it at the same time.

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♪ before she was the diva, where before she was the queen bee, she was just beyonce jazelle knowles from houston. >> beyonce was a quiet kid, kind of to herself. >> hoping to get beyonce to come out of her shell, matthew and tina knowles sent their 7-year-old daughter to darlet johnson's dance studio. >> when you first saw her, and

she first came in, i mean, did you even notice her? >> what i did notice about her is she was very shy. what is your name, beyonce knowles. you can barely hear her speak. can you say it again, honey? beyonce knowles. >> but on the dance floor are. >> she would dance so hard she would lose her costume pieces. sometimes her hat would come off because she was fierce. >> it was here that beyonce created her now famous alter ego. >> that's sasha fierce. >> yes. >> that's who that is. >> she got on the stage, she became a different person. >> but no one knew beyonce had a secret. >> she finished it and it blew me away and i stopped and told her sing it again and she wouldn't sing again, because she was very quiet, very shy. and i promised her a dollar. and she sung it again. and i was just -- i was floored. and her parents came to pick her

up, i said, she can sing. she can really sing. >> a multimillion dollar star was born. >> i remember her sitting on the floor and telling her, you're going to be so big, and i remember her, she was looking up at me, i said, you watch. >> at local talent pageants, the pint sized power houhouse made name for herself. >> before her name was called, the whole audience was rocking her name, beyonce, beyonce, beyonce. ♪ >> judy boston took beyonce to many of the pack egeants. >> sthe always won the competitions. she always stood out. >> thank you. >> adorable. now, are these all the trophies

she won from doing the talent shows and the pageants? >> this is from the pageants, yeah. >> yet no one imagined that at this young age beyonce would already face the ugly side of fame. >> in school, you know, there was some jealousy because she was beginning to be a local star. so there was some jealousy of girls and they said some mean things to her. >> but the bullying didn't stop her. fame came knocking at the door of her mother's salon? >> ladies came and said, you know what, en vogue was hot at the time. they said, we want to form a version of en vogue but a younger version of enrogue. we would like beyonce to be the lead singer of the group. >> girls time was born. she teamed up with six girls including her cousin kelly rowland. >> beyonce was the pilot of the group. she got tired, they would encourage her, i called her the energizer bunny because beyonce

kept going and going and going. ♪ i don't care >> from the local spotlight to the national stage -- >> these girls, girls time, ended up going to star search and ended up competing against some 40-year-olds. >> a perfect score, the challenger, girls time receives -- >> they lose and they're crying their hearts out. i go over to them, and it affected me and i said, mr. mcmahon, the kids are crying, i'm a dad, what do i do? he says, look, all i know is those who lose, they go back and they rededicate, refocus. >> and that's what matthew knowles had them do. in 1995, he resigned from his corporate job at xerox to manage the girls full time. >> i couldn't look them in the eye and say give it your all if i wasn't doing it. >> so that's a lesson you taught beyonce kind of by example, this is how you dedicate yourself to this craft. >> yes.

and it was difficult. >> all they wanted was a major record deal. and that meant lots of hard work. here's some rare footage of beyonce working on some early recordings. dwayne wiggins was their producer. >> beyonce stood out. everybody would say that, she simply was a very focused young lady. >> that focus paid off with a big record contract. michael mulden was an executive at columbia records. >> we could tell she had pipes and could tell, you any, again, they were young pipes. that's what you want to do is try to find groups you can put in an incubator and just kind of develop. >> the group settled on a name, destiny's child. and the hits started coming. like no, no, no. ♪ come get my love i'm here for you ♪ >> destiny's child was on the express ride to the top.

until -- >> what happened is the girls wanted new management. so that was some pretty tough for beyonce because her father is manager. >> the two members who wanted beyonce's father out were quickly replaced. >> beyonce was, you know, the one who got the black eye for it. very, very, very unjustly. >> beyonce became public enemy number one with fans and the press. and being called a blood sucking diva. the criticism was nothing new for the girl who was bullied at age 9 for her talent, but now ten years older, beyonce was stronger. her song said it, she was a survivor. ♪ i'm a survivor i'm not gonna give up ♪ >> the publicity from the scandal was seemingly priceless. people couldn't get enough of destiny's child.

by the 2001 grammys, destiny's child seems unstoppable. or at least that's what everyone thought. when we come back, beyonce goes off on her own. (mother vo) when i was pregnant... i got more advice than i knew what to do with. what i needed was information i could trust on how to take care of me and my baby. luckily, unitedhealthcare has a simple program that helps moms stay on track with their doctors and get the right care and guidance-before and after the baby is born. simple is good right now. (anncr vo) innovations that work for you. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

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let's go. give it here. dance like a star. >> listen carefully. >> harder. harder. >> darlet johnson's girls, the

ones she calls the next generation of beyonces, are dancing to "crazy in love". >> perfect. >> "crazy in love" i love. >> don't we all? >> it is the first single off beyonce's very first solo album "dangerously in love." and it is the song that launches beyonce as a major solo superstar. and leads to the end of destiny's child. >> i knew that that was going to take her soaring. >> and it did. >> it did. ♪ >> beyonce's part two, the solo career, begins with jay z. he's in her first solo hit and he's in her personal life. from their dating, to their wedding, to baby blue, the public doesn't learn a single detail until beyonce is ready to spill it. >> so let me show you this. >> an approach she learned from

her father. >> i'm not going to talk about beyonce to mom. >> what about papa g, the granddad. what do you like to do with blue. >> i'm not going to talk about that. you get nothing. >> i get nothing. >> you get nothing. >> it is a philosophy that beyonce would go on to apply to both her professional and private lives. nobody learns anything about b until she's ready to tell them. >> let's talk about dangerously in love. the album did really well. >> yes. >> that first solo album debuted at number one. and went on to sell more than 11 million copies. >> album did really well and what am i thinking? tour? >> studio, tour, more singles, now. >> normally when the album does very well, you do a tour.

>> there is a small tour, beyonce's first as a solo artist, followed by three more solo albums and a total of five solo number one hits, including 2008's single lady. ♪ movies. >> because i'm foxy cleopatra and i'm a whole lot of woman. >> a fashion line. >> my mother would make beautiful clothes. after so many years, my fans, they were, like, okay, we have to buy these clothes somewhere. >> and numerous endorsements, including one with pepsi that will pay beyonce to advertise its products and fund some of her creative projects. >> i think it is a huge deal. i think it says a lot about her as a brand, her -- about her music, and that pepsi would do something like that for a black female music artist that is tremendous.

>> it is a deal that demonstrates she is as good a business woman as she is a performer. >> my father was such an incredible entrepreneur and any and everything he said he would have, he worked until he had it. and he taught me there is no such thing as no. >> my personal opinion is she watched. she watched her dad. she watched her mom. her mom ran a hair salon. she's got this business savvy this a lot of people either -- a lot of creative types they're one side. >> and now beyonce is on her own. and announcing years ago that her father would no longer be her manager. >> i wonder where can she or where does she go from here? >> i think that's a question you should ask beyonce. i think she has the ability, the talent, passion, fans, that she can quite frankly go wherever she would like to go. >> where she went next was hbo,

directing an autobiographical documentary that aired in 2013. >> i was not given to you. you have to take it. you're playing a part in a much bigger show. and that's what life is. >> we learned more about the personal details she usually withholds. such as the miscarriage she suffered prior to blue ivy. but even before the documentary aired, she was becoming a little freer with personal information. thanks to a large and active tumblr site. >> it if they post it, you're supposed to know it. not posting it, you're not supposed to know it. >> after the doc, there is a world tour. using her married name. so what could be next, writer/producer neo hinted that beyonce's next move would push the edges creatively. >> not afraid to take a risk.

not afraid to take a shot. she's not afraid to do this. and if you hit, you hit, if you don't, you don't. >> aside from admitting to recording sessions with beyonce, he wouldn't say any more. >> i'm not going to be the one to let the cat out of the bag. you're not going to get me in trouble. no sir. nobody has the patience to wait for the greatness. they want everything quick, quick, quick. if you actually take the time to wait for it, it maybes it that much better when you actually get it. >> as the world waited, beyonce worked. on the best kept secret in the business. >> i personally think beyonce did it to silence the critics. there is a lot of chirping. beyonce doesn't know what she's doing. she's in trouble. why isn't this album coming out. >> everyone thought i was crazy. but we're actually doing it. >> the move was big. bold, and created tons of buzz. she used her facebook page and instagram account to announce she had a new album. no prealbum hype, no promotion,

straight from beyonce to her fans. >> this is how she rolls because as launching an album, people anticipated and wait for it, it is just as exciting when she brings it out through social media and everybody is talking about it anyway. >> 800,000 copies sold in just three days. her biggest album debut yet and itunes worldwide record. the stunning move just more proof that beyonce is in control of her own destiny. into the tunnel. >> we knew him as "fast & furious", the california surfer. >> i remember him, sandy beach hair, in surf trunks,