The internet's top 4 theories on why Solange Knowles attacked Jay-Z in an elevator.

UPDATE: We’ve just heard that Solange Knowles has deleted all photographs of Beyonce from her Instagram feed. As Oyster magazine reports, it’s the “21st century equivalent of ceremoniously deleting someone’s digits from your phone”. Now you just try and tell us there’s no tension there.

Mamamia previously reported:

We can never go back now.

We can never go back to a world where Beyonce and Jay-Z have the perfect power-couple relationship. A world where Jay + Bey are in love, harmonious and happy.

Video of a savage fight between Bey’s husband Jay-Z Carter and her sister Solange Knowles was leaked today (or more accurately, bought by TMZ for an obscene amount of money). It’s security footage from the inside of a lift after the Met Gala Ball in New York and it shows three figures identified as Jay, Bey and Solange walk in and freak out.

Solange is caught scratching, hitting and fly-kicking Jay-Z as Beyonce sort-of leans back, almost cowering against the mirrored insides of the lift. There’s a stillness about Bey that suggests this isn’t the first time her husband and sister have, ah, disagreed.

There’s no audio with the clip, so naturally all we can do is speculate wildly about what provoked the fight. From the amusing to the disturbing, here are the top four theories flying around about what may have caused Solange to physically attack her brother-in-law:

1. Jay-Z insulted Solange about her career and/or life choices.

“This lift has more levels than you have fans.”

“Yo Solange, I’mma let you finish, but Baeyonce is the best Knowles of all time.”

“My lips are bigger than your career.”

Twitter users have spent hours fantasizing about what Jay-Z may have said to Solange to enrage her. Most of them are completely stupid and pointless.

But there is a real possibility that Jay-Z said something truly hurtful to Solange to set her off. She is the less famous Knowles sister, she was never invited to join Destiny’s Child, she’s a single mum and she’s lived in Bey’s shadow her whole life.

Who’s to say Jay-Z didn’t taunt her the exact moment before they entered that lift? As her brother-in-law, Jay-Z could have a whole stash of insults ready to hurt her. Maybe he knows exactly what would wound her ego and he did it particularly fiercely that night.

2. Solange is an angry drunk.

Despite being younger, Solange is known to be the fiercer of the Knowles sisters. Yes, fiercer than Sasha Fierce. Beyonce has spoken openly before about Solange’s outspoken nature and we know girl likes to party. She’s also known for her diva-like behaviour with media and she frequently rants on Twitter.

So Solange has a short fuse, a tendency to say what she thinks and the unlimited access to free booze that comes with celebrity. The combination of those factors could potentially make her an angry drunk.

Alcohol is one of the most prolific causes of aggression, so it’s entirely possible that this famous-person fight is the same as any other drunken brawl.

3. Jay-Z cheated on Bey and Solange don’t like it.

Infidelity rumours about Jay and Bey have been around for years (like most mega-famous couples, we cannot believe in their monogamy). Some of them are ridiculous (Beyonce sleeping with President Obama) and some of them are so popular they could be true (Jay-Z getting jiggy with Gwyneth Paltrow).

Most tabloid writers consider it common knowledge that Jay-Z and Beyonce have an open marriage. It seems impossible that consensual polygamy could ever work between two people like this – and maybe it is.

Or of course, Blue Ivy Carter’s parents actually did agree on traditional monogamy and Jay-Z did the dirty with someone. Solange stepped in to defend Bey’s honour, which explains why she and Beyonce got into a separate car to Jay-Z leaving the venue.

4. Jay-Z is not a nice guy and Solange knows it.

Since Jay-Z compared his and Beyonce’s relationship to Ike and Tina Turner’s in Drunk In Love, people have speculated that Jay-Z is an abusive partner.

Which is nothing more than speculation about people we do not personally know, obviously. But then there’s this tweet from Solange Knowles. We can’t confirm if this is genuine but here’s a screenshot of a tweet allegedly sent from Solange’s account following the incident.

“he tried the right one. I keep telling yall that nigga ain’t bout that life. u hit my sis I hit u hoe. talk what you know! y’all don’t know shit,” she tweeted.

Solange is right. We don’t know shit.

We may never know what went down in that lift for real – Beyonce is a fierce protector of privacy and the couple’s flawless reputation is their greatest asset – but we know that the Knowles-Carter family is volatile. We know they’re not as perfect as they appear. And we know we’ll fixate on this conflict until something else steals our attention.