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Hip-Hop Lives Here
Beyoncé‘s seminal debut solo album Dangerously in Love turns 20 this month, and to celebrate the milestone anniversary, photographer Markus Klinko opened up about shooting the cover.
Klinko told Insider that he first met Bey when shooting Destiny’s Child for Vibe back in 2000. “I had no idea who they were until I got the call from Vibe,” he recalled. “Her mom was styling it. And I remember pointing at Beyoncé and saying, ‘This one in the middle here, she’s going to be huge. She has a lot of charisma.’ Her mom just said, ‘Yeah, we know.'”
For the Dangerously in Love cover, Bey was inspired by a photo Klinko took of Laetitia Casta for a diamond advertisement, in which the model in tangled up across a glimmering spiderweb. “She said she really loved that image and if we could do something like that, just smaller, on her. And I didn’t really know how to interpret that,” he said. “That image is very blue, mainly blue, dark blue. When she said it, I didn’t really immediately know what to do about it.”
Beyoncé’s mom Tina Knowles-Lawson ended up bringing the now-iconic diamond top on the cover with her to the shoot, though the “Break My Soul” singer wasn’t immediately on board. “She said she didn’t like it,” he said. “She didn’t think it worked because her mom wanted to pair it with these long skirts. Beyoncé said, ‘This is going to look very prom or red carpet and I don’t want to do that.'”
Klinko then suggested a pair of jeans. “Beyoncé said, ‘Well, we don’t have any denim. We didn’t bring any.’ I said, ‘You might fit my own jeans that I’m wearing,'” he explained. “She said, ‘OK, let’s try.’ So we did.”
And the Dangerously in Love album cover was born. “Beyoncé contributed a lot because she worked it,” Klinko said. “She worked a piece — that’s not easy to do. She found the exact right movement. That wasn’t my idea to put the arms up. That was her idea, and I don’t even know if it was an idea. It was her instinct. And I knew: ‘That’s the cover.'”
Musically, her debut solo effort not only debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, but it spawned multiple classic hits including “Crazy in Love,” “Baby Boy,” “Naughty Girl” and “Me, Myself & I.”
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On today’s (Nov. 20) episode of the Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century podcast, we reach No. 3 on our list with a pop super-duperstar who shined bright for 13 years of absolute pop world command, before ducking out to tend to her business and empire for most of the past decade. (Read our No. 3 Greatest Pop Star essay about Rihanna here.)
Host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Billboard staff writer Kyle Denis and senior branded content producer/writer Walaa Elsiddig to remember the dazzling career of Robyn Rihanna Fenty. We discuss both the absurd chart numbers and more intangible factors that made Rihanna loom large over all of 21st century pop stardom, and debate her ranking alongside our No. 4 Greatest Pop Star Drake — where Rih might not have the same level of statistical accomplishments as her frequent co-star but always dominated their one-on-one matchup.
We also discuss how Rihanna shed early one-hit wonder (or two-hit wonder) worries to become a no-doubt A-lister, and how the assault from her superstar then-boyfriend (and the wildly unfair and inappropriate media coverage of the incident) cruelly interrupted what was one of the most incredible rises of the ’00s. Then, we explain how she elevated from hitmaker to global icon over the course of the 2010s, before essentially going out on top with a no-doubt classic album that sounds even better in 2024 than it did back in 2016. Finally, we remember some great moments in Rihanna Social Media Clapback History, share memories of saucy Bad Gal lyrics getting us in trouble, and attempt some impromptu (and off-key) Rih-Yo duet recreations.
Check it out above, get acquainted with our past episodes here, and be sure to subscribe to Billboard‘s Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century series wherever you get your podcasts! (New episodes will be revealed every Wednesday, following the Tuesday publishing of our Greatest Pop Star for that week, up to the unveiling of our No. 1 on Dec. 3.)
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