On a recent Tuesday at the Museum of Moden Art’s branch at P.S.1 in
Queens, Solange stood in front of an image of the African-American
activist Angela Davis.
I dressed up as her for Halloween last year,” she says, snapping a picture with her iPhone in the empty museum (she had the place to herself thanks to one of her curator friends). “I just threw it together at the last minute. That’s kind of how I usually do things.
Indeed, as Knowles has demonstrated throughout her dozen-plus years in show business, she’s nothing if not resourceful.
For the younger sister of Beyoncé — that pop juggernaut for whom
Super Bowls and presidential inaugurations are routine — an afternoon at
a museum without crowds, guards, and pesky no-photo policies is her
ideal level of excitement these days. After spending nearly half her
life on the major-label payroll,
Knowles moved from L.A. to Brooklyn, where her never-quite-burgeoning
pop career evolved into something more interesting — and in the process,
she became a nouveau-bohemian star in indie-rock and fashion circles
alike.
True, her sleek new EP released on the boutique label Terrible Records, is her Solange 2.0 calling card. Produced by Blood Orange mastermind Dev Hynes and powered by its captivating lead single “Losing You,” the album has won her accolades and a new fan base — including Girls creator and star Lena Dunham, who used the song in the show’s season 2 premiere. Knowles, it seems, has found her element.
Her liberated new look stems from the fact that she paid for all of
it — the EP, the video, even her website — out of pocket.
"Every
decision that’s been made behind this record, from the exact color of
the album’s artwork to what record stores we put the record in, has been made by me",she says.
"
Her son Julez, 8, is getting in on the act too: He’s already taking a
stab at becoming a rapper. While Knowles is “terrified” that her son
wants to enter the family business, she still encourages him to follow
his passions. In fact, she keeps pictures of his handwritten verses on
her phone, one of which she offered to read aloud:
“You don’t know how to rap/You’re so fat, like a rat in a
mousetrap/You got a pen?/No? I didn’t think so/I’ll get you one if you
know how to flow, yo/You got a pocket? I didn’t think so/Because you’re
like an armadillo in the road, bro/Have you seen the movie hunger
games?” And then it stops there."
After the museum, Solange heads to Williamsburg, the bustling hipster
mecca of Brooklyn, for rehearsal. But first she picks up an order from
local comfort-food joint Pies ‘N’ Thighs: fried catfish, mac and cheese, greens, lemonade, and pecan pie.
"I’m such a Southern girl,” she says almost apologetically. “I plan
on moving back in the next year or two, when it makes sense for Julez
schoolwise. I think either Austin or New Orleans. Somewhere warm, for
sure.”
http://music-mix.ew.com/2013/02/08/solange-knowles/#
