A compliment Jay-Z paid to Rachel Roy at the 2014 Met Gala afterparty is said by fashion designer Oscar G. Lopez to have triggered the now-infamous elevator confrontation with Solange Knowles.
Lopez, who designed Roy's French-sequined gown for the occasion, described the events surrounding that chaotic night at Manhattan's Standard Hotel.
"I think that Jay complimented her about the gown and Beyoncé's sister felt that it was not proper, so it was a kind of a drama there," Lopez told the Daily Mail.
The surveillance camera footage from that night, originally provided by TMZ and shared by eNCA, showed Solange physically confronting Jay-Z as Beyoncé looked on silently. The video – which escaped days later – became one of the most discussed celebrity moments of the decade.
Lopez said that Roy's dress, designed within less than two weeks, received more media attention than expected. He added about the media frenzy that "any press is good press. It's good that people talk about you."
Per AllHipHop, in 2005 Roy married Damon Dash, the co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, and divorced in 2009. While married, Roy oversaw the women's and children's lines at Rocawear.
The seemingly minor compliment carried added weight because of Jay-Z's complicated history with Dash. Jay-Z and Dash's relationship reportedly began to unravel in the early 2000s due to business and personal conflicts.
Both men had shown romantic interest in R&B singer Aaliyah during the late 1990s, with Dash ultimately dating Aaliyah until her death in 2001. Jay-Z later parted ways with Dash, and in 2004, the remaining half of Roc-A-Fella Records was sold to Def Jam for $10 million.
In 2004, Dash helped Roy establish Royale Etenia LLC, which launched the successful Rachel Roy brand. The two had divorced by 2009. Lopez denied Jay-Z was romantically involved with his former business partner's ex-wife, noting that he and Roy "laughed off the rumors about an affair" and "didn't take it seriously."
Speculation about Roy's connection to Jay-Z resurfaced in 2016 after Beyoncé dropped Lemonade. The song "Sorry" contained the line about "Becky with the good hair", which people felt was a diss aimed at Roy.
Roy later fired back on Instagram, writing, "Good hair, don't care," but denied any relation to the line.
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