Jagged Edge Allegedly 'Harassed' A Teenage Beyoncé & Kelly Rowland, According To Beyoncé's Dad Mathew Knowles
The accusations are pretty intense.
Getty Images Who is Jagged Edge? Mathew Knowles, perhaps best known as the father of the legendary Beyoncé and the man responsible for the success of Destiny's Child, has come forward with some explosive allegations about the group.
The 67-year-old told Vlad TV, a well-known hip hop outlet, that members of the "R&B boy band" harassed both his infamous daughter and her former bandmate, Kelly Rowland, when they were on a joint tour.
But what else do we know about them? Surely, there is more to them than these recent allegations. Is Mathew Knowles telling the truth? Did the band respond? And what about Beyoncé — did she respond?
Let's look at what we know about this band and these explosive accusations.
1. Who is Jagged Edge? The group was at the height of their popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Jagged Edge is one of those rare groups that still has their original lineup. Formed in 1995, Jagged Edge consists of twin brothers Brian and Brandon Casey, Kyle Norman, and Richard Wingo.
Fun fact: before she was a Real Housewife, Kandi Burruss was a member of the R&B group Xscape, and she recommended Richard Wingo to the Jagged Edge lineup! Back then, he was known as "Wingo Dollar." It was Kandi, in fact, who took Jagged Edge to Jermaine Dupri, who ultimately signed them to So So Def Recordings.
2. One of their best-known songs was recently featured on This is Us.
The hit NBC show This is Us focuses on the various members of the Pearson family through the decades. And on the Season 3, Episode 17 episode called "R&B," we see the backstory of Beth and Randall Pearson.
In one part of the episode, we see Randall (Sterling K. Brown) proposing to Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) by singing the Jagged Edge song, "Let's Get Married." Nineties babies throwback for the win!
3. Mathew Knowles said that "two of the Jagged Edge members" harassed Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland when they were teens.
At about the 4 minutes, 45-second mark in Mathew Knowles' Vlad TV interview, he begins to talk about how Destiny's Child and Jagged Edge were "on the same tour bus." He goes on to say that "the girls were minors," whereas the men in Jagged Edge were in their early 20s.
After explaining that he had a "fiduciary duty" to minors, he went on to say that he got a call from both Kelly and Beyoncé claiming they were being "harassed" by two of the members of Jagged Edge. In response, Mathew said that he "put the guys off the bus" in Baton Rouge, LA. When he did that, he said that this was the beginning of "all this drama."
4. But Mathew Knowles is also set to drop a tell-all book — is this a publicity stunt?
While, no doubt, these allegations against Jagged Edge are shocking, it bears stating that Mathew Knowles is also set to drop a tell-all book about his time managing Destiny's Child. So, there's the possibility that this is being done to sell copies of that upcoming book.
5. Jagged Edge responded to the claims.
The idea that these claims might be a publicity stunt to sell Mathew Knowles' upcoming book is one shared by the members of Jagged Edge as well. The group posted a statement on both their official Instagram page, and on Brian Casey's official Instagram page, that read "a lie don't care who tell it."
On his page, in particular, Brian went into more detail: "One thing I have learned from my 20plus years in this business and it’s always something. It’s actually funny how far people go to sell something, lol but I give All Praises To The Most High At all times Shalawam love ones."
6. Beyoncé has not yet publicly responded to the claims.
As of this writing, Beyoncé has not yet responded to the claims that her father made about her time in Destiny's Child, or even if Jagged Edge did, in fact, harass her and Kelly Rowland. However, she and her father don't exactly have the best of relationships, so that may have something to do with it.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in Teen Vogue, People, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, BET.com, and more.