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Mathew Knowles comes from a long line of Black entrepreneurs. He used his business acumen to invest in his daughters’ music careers.

Before his eldest daughter, Beyoncé, succeeded with Destiny’s Child, Knowles spent two decades working in sales. When he entered the music industry, he used his own financial resources to fund the group’s albums and music videos. This approach allowed him to ensure that Destiny’s Child and his younger daughter, Solange, could “control the narrative” of their brands without being bound by the constraints of their record label.

“I can’t remember the last time I’ve asked someone for money,” Knowles told AfroTech at the Building Wealth Today for Tomorrow Financial Empowerment Summit in Chicago on Oct. 12.

“We prefer to do it ourselves. So, we control the narrative. Even making Beyoncé, Destiny’s Child, Solange’s albums, although we had a budget, the record label gives you a budget to make the album.”

Knowles continued. “But we would spend our own money for the album. We would spend our own money on the video because we wanted to control the narrative. And once I’m using somebody else’s money, now I have to listen to their concerns. When I’m using my own money, I don’t care what your concerns are because I’m using my own money. We will do it our way, and it worked for us. I’m not saying it works for everyone, but it worked for us.”

In this exclusive, Sean “The Pen” Garrett talks about meeting Destiny’s Child for the first time, his songwriting chemistry with Beyoncé and more.

What were some other memorable sessions?

The first time meeting Destiny's Child was amazing. I went there to do one song and ended up doing about 11 songs on Destiny Fulfilled. The first record we did was “Is She The Reason.”

Speaking of Destiny’s Child, Beyoncé’s “Upgrade U” is a fan favorite. There’s footage of you and Beyoncé coming up with the lyrics. What was it like to create with her, from a songwriting perspective?

She and I have a really great chemistry with songwriting. I take it so personally when people don't really know what happened and they speak on it as if they know. Sometimes it just bothers me. Working with somebody like Beyoncé is totally different than working with other people. She's a great songwriter, so we collab and gel. I typically write all the songs by myself. But with Bey, sometimes she'll take what I gave her, and we'll collab. She'll have me change this or that depending on her brand. That's what's so really specifically special about her — she is very particular about her brand.

So, if it's something that's off-brand, she’ll be very sweet about saying it’s not for her. It's not like she was ever like, “Hell no.” She knows how to make you feel good and enjoy the process of working with her. She's the sweetest.

I updated our gallery with some older photos.

In October, Mathew Knowles announced the release of a compilation album featuring unreleased music of Destiny's Child’s first incarnate, Girl's Tyme. The 15-track set was released today and accompanied by the book, ‘Destiny’s Child: The Untold Story.’ Listen to the album below and order the book here!

I updated our photo gallery with some older photos.

Unreleased Girl's Tyme album coming soon on all streaming platforms!

Beyonce.com was updated with old Destiny's Child photos to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of "The Writing's On The Wall".

The first time I met Yvette Noel-Schure was by mistake. I was on my way to see Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s On the Run II tour, but Los Angeles traffic prevented me from arriving at a reasonable hour. I sprinted to the ticket booth, only to discover the windows were closed for the evening. Heaving and sweating, with the sounds of “Diva” booming from inside the stadium, I was crushed. But there, standing at the shuttered window, was a woman holding an envelope with my name on it. Fresh-faced in a floral jumpsuit with not a hair out of place, she handed me my tickets. I nearly collapsed in gratitude, and asked for her name: “I’m Beyoncé’s publicist,” she said. She smiled and walked away.

The second time I met Noel-Schure was under more carefully planned circumstances, months later in her office, a tiny, candlelit oasis with a diffuser pumping a scent called “Peace” into the air. It is here, inside the Manhattan office building that houses Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment—visitors sign strict N.D.A.s via iPad at the reception desk—where Noel-Schure conducts arguably the most important work in the entertainment business. She is in charge of shaping, managing, and executing the messaging of the world’s biggest modern icon—an artist who handles the work of releasing an album with the secrecy and large-scale tactical precision of a major military operation.

I expect Noel-Schure to work in a high-tech fortress but, instead, her shelves are filled with large binders hand-labeled with the names of Beyoncé’s major tours. Noel-Schure has been representing major pop stars for over three decades and, at 57, her old-school methods still serve her well. “I’m very anal,” she says in her gentle Caribbean accent. “I keep impeccable files of who came to the show. This is just a sampling...I know when the requests came in, I know when I answered them.”

Destiny’s Child just had an epic reunion at Coachella last month — but according to Kelly Rowland, that doesn’t mean they’ll be joining Beyoncé and JAY-Z on tour this summer.

After rumors spread that Rowland and Michelle Williams would be joining the superstar couple for their upcoming On The Run II tour, Rowland, 37, tells PEOPLE that they aren’t true. In fact, there hasn’t even been any talk about the possibility.

“This is the first time I heard it — this morning,” Rowland told PEOPLE at Schick’s F.A.B. event in N.Y.C. on Thursday. “I was like, ‘Well, that’s news to me!’ There hasn’t been anything we discussed. She and Jay are getting ready to go on tour — I’m sad because I won’t see those babies.”

But according to the singer, the girl group is just as in sync as they were during their Destiny’s Child days. Rowland adds that while they spent days in rehearsals for their most recent reunion at Coachella, hitting the stage with Beyoncé and Williams by her side felt just like old times.

“It was long days but it was so fun. I think the best part was it felt like we were just on stage yesterday. It didn’t feel like it was years that we haven’t been together, and that’s how natural we are together as friends, as sisters.”

Michelle Williams knows how to keep a secret. “We’re the secret queens,” the singer tells Billboard in the wake of performing two consecutive weekends at Coachella with headliner Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland. The trio, who rose to commercial acclaim in the late ‘90s and early aughts as Destiny’s Child, had been keeping the surprise under wraps since February, when Bey reached out to her former band members and asked them to join her for a medley of their mega-hits including “Say My Name,” “Lose My Breath” and “Soldier.”

“It’s just like old girlfriends coming together,” explains the 37-year-old, who last reunited as Destiny’s Child at the 2015 Stellar Awards where they performed her upbeat gospel single “Say Yes.” “It’s something that when the three of us come together, we all know we feel safe within each other. Like I got your back. We’re good. I really love that about us.”

Since Destiny’s Child went on hiatus in the wake of their last album, 2004’s Destiny Fulfilled, Williams hasn’t slowed. She’s put out four solo full-lengths including her final release, 2014’s Journey to Freedom (which won’t be her last); starred on stage as leads in Chicago and Aida; launched her own furniture and candle line Believe by Michelle; and, more recently, got engaged to pastor Chad Johnson just prior to her Coachella performance. Still teeming with excitement from the pair of shows, Williams explains how it all came together.

There were rumors before Coachella that a Destiny’s Child reunion might happen. How did the conversations begin for this? Did Beyoncé call you and just say, “It’s time?”

Beyonce performed during 2018 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival Weekend 1 at the Empire Polo Field on April 14, 2018 in Indio, California. The singer prepared many surprises for her fans, including a Destiny’s Child reunion, as well as cameos from JAY-Z and Solange. Queen B also unveiled new merch at the festival. Watch the full performance and check out the setlist below.

I updated our gallery with tons of magazine covers.

I updated our gallery with various older pictures.

Since we haven't seen Beyonce in a while, I decided to upload some older photos that were missing from our gallery. Enjoy!

After more than 10 years, Destiny's Child is back at No. 1 on Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart. Meanwhile, Brandy reigns after seven years.

"The Girl Is Mine," by 99 Souls featuring Destiny's Child and Brandy, rises 2-1 on the chart (dated March 5). The track is a mash-up of Destiny's Child's "Girl," a No. 5 Dance Club Songs, and No. 23 Billboard Hot 100, hit in 2005, and Brandy and Monica's "The Boy Is Mine," which led the Hot 100 for 13 weeks in 1998.

Destiny's Child scores its fourth Dance Club Songs topper, Brandy her third and British house duo 99 Souls its first. Destiny's Child had last led with "Soldier" (featuring T.I. and Lil Wayne) in February 2005. Brandy had last topped the chart with "Long Distance" in March 2009. Notably, the three principal Destiny's Child members have all hit the summit as soloists: Beyonce (22 No. 1s), Kelly Rowland (three) and Michelle Williams (one).

Remixes from Chris Lorenzo, Crookers, and Danny Howard, among others, helped "Girl" grab the No. 1 spot.

Angela Beyince
Vice President of Operations, Parkwood Entertainment

“As a child, I spent every single summer with Beyoncé and Solange. The last day of school, Aunt Tina would pick me up, then they dropped me off home the night before the first day of school. I’d go to watch Beyonce perform, and she was probably 5 years old—beauty pageants, whatever Houston had, she was there performing with a mic in her hand. I mean, she loved it, but there was still something very unique and pretty, something different from all the other 5-year-olds who sang their favorite songs. In some ways, she was kind of shy. I think she understood then that she had a great voice, because I think when you sing it’s something you feel. You can feel your voice box, the vibrations; you can hear it. But she was never overt. She didn’t walk into a room, and be like, ‘Hey, check this out, look what I can do.’ No, she was very humble and quiet. If she was asked to sing, she gladly did it, even if she wasn’t in the mood. You know, family is proud. We’d go visit other relatives and she would be playing like a normal kid, and then, ‘Hey, come sing this song for my friend.’ She’d say, ‘OK.’ And then she’d go sing to them, and then she’d go back and play. She never reveled in it. She’d went back to being a kid.

"I do believe that if she could sing under a secret identity and still affect people and touch their lives that she’d rather not be famous. That, if she had her choice, she’d rather take off her shoes and do cartwheels in the park. That’s really who she’d like to be. But unfortunately that’s something you give up when you become as famous as she is. We’ve tried it many times. We tried it in London a few summers ago—Tina, Solange, and myself. We were riding bikes and just hanging out, and Beyoncé was at the hotel and was, like, "I’m coming!" And we waited, and she got there and arrived with a big crowd of people behind her. We tried to ignore it, but even in that moment she said, "You guys enjoy the day and I’m going to go." And she left. But she doesn’t complain about it. This is what she was born to do and she’s loved it since she was a kid. She never takes it for granted. She appreciates every second of it. It’s like she’s painting a piece of art. Until the last color is on the canvas, she’s not done. Until it’s dry and it’s amazing and it’s finished and it’s up hanging on the wall, she’s not done.”

Beyoncé and Destiny's Child received 13 nominations for the 2014 World Music Awards. Be sure to vote here!

World's Best Song
Drunk in Love - Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z
Nuclear - Destiny's Child
Part II (On the Run) - Jay-Z feat. Beyoncé

World's Best Album
Beyoncé - Beyoncé
Love Songs - Destiny's Child

World's Best Video
Beyoncé - Beyoncé
Drunk in Love - Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z
Life Is But a Dream - Beyoncé

World's Best Female Artist
Beyoncé

World's Best Group
Destiny's Child

World's Best Live Act
Beyoncé
Destiny's Child

World's Best Entertainer
Beyoncé

Music World Entertainment, Columbia Records, and Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, proudly announce the upcoming release of the Destiny's Child Video Anthology, the first-ever career-spanning collection of sixteen iconic short music films that define the look and sound of a pivotal era (1998-2004) of musical and cultural history. The DVD will be available starting June 4, 2013.

Originally made to accompany smash singles and key tracks from the era's top-selling female vocal group, the Destiny's Child video catalog shows the artists' mastery and understanding of visual and musical elements alive in the zeitgeist.

Collaborating with top directors and creative teams for their videos, Destiny's Child realized a vision of pop ferocity and elegance that set the bar for generations to come and opened up whole new horizon for R&B/Pop with an unbroken string of groundbreaking classics beginning with "No, No, No " (Parts 1 and 2) in 1998, running through MTV Video Award Winners "Say My Name" (from 1999's The Writing's On The Wall) and "Survivor" (from 2001's Survivor) and other groundbreaking classics including "Independent Women Part 1," "Bootylicious," "Bills, Bills, Bills" and more.

The Destiny's Child Video Anthology is the group's third release through Legacy Recordings. The first two -- 2012's Playlist - The Very Best of Destiny's Child and 2013's romantically-themed Love Songs -- were career-spanning compilation albums illuminating different sides of the profoundly influential vocal group, helping to fuel a renewed surge of interest in Destiny's Child which crescendoed in the group's triumphal "reunion" set at the Super Bowl 2013 half-time show. Released in October 2012, Playlist - The Very Best of Destiny's Child is among the most successful of Legacy's popular "Playlist" series--as noted in Billboard.biz (November 30, 2012), "The highest ranking 'Playlist' album is Destiny's Child's Playlist: The Very Best of Destiny's Child...."-- while Love Songs made waves with the debut of "Nuclear," the first new Destiny's Child studio recording since 2004. Both Playlist (#77) and Love Songs (#72) debuted in the upper half of the Billboard 200 and, coincidentally, each hit #14 on the R&B Albums chart, remarkable achievements for catalog releases.

Drake knows what's up.

Girls (and boys, dogs, unicorns—everyone!) love Beyoncé. Late Monday night, the 26-year-old rapper released a new, NSFW song, aptly titled "Girls Love Beyoncé." In the track, James Fauntleroy even covers a portion of Destiny's Child's 1999 hit "Say My Name."

"Look, I know girls love Beyoncé," Drake raps, then quickly turns to, "Girls love to f--k with your conscience / Girls hate when n---as go missing, and shawty you ain't no different."

"These days it's hard to meet women / Feel like my love life is finished / I've been avoiding commitment / That's why I'm in this position," he goes on. "I'm scared to let somebody in on this / No new friends, no, no, no, no / You know how this s--t goes."

Drake, with the help of Mr. Fauntleroy, rap-sings, "If you're alone, then say my name, say my name, say my name." (Y'all remember the chorus.)

The rest of the track continues with more from Drake on the woes of women, and of course, the vintage Destiny's Child track remains the hook.