The 64-year-old professor discusses his pride for his daughter and his relationship with Blue Ivy.
Beyoncé dropped a new album, and naturally, her father has something to say about it.
Mathew Knowles spoke with Mark Thompson on the Sirius XM show "Make It Plan" and responded to a passage in the "Lemonade" visual album where Beyoncé recites in a poem, "Did he convince you that he was god? Are you a slave to the back of his hand?"
"I can say I have never in my life hit my daughter," Knowles said when asked if it refers to him. "So, she has never been a slave to the back of my hand because I didn't believe in that."
The spoken word passages -- including the bit where she speaks about her father, "a magician able to exist in two places at once" -- were not actually lyrics written by the "Formation" singer, as Thompson incorrectly identified, but Somali-British poet Warsan Shire.
"There's no way we can get into the mind of Beyoncé," Knowles added about whether his relationship with Tina Knowles was one inspiration for the album. "Only Beyoncé can answer specifically who she was talking to...I would rather not get into speculation. My answer is I don't know."
As for whether the Texas Southern University professor of Entertainment and the Recording Industry Management has any reaction to being meme-d in the wake of the "Lemonade" release, Knowles got defensive, but managed to segue to reveal how proud he is of his daughter.
"I have no reaction, sir. I know the response you want to get, you're not going to get that response," he said. "I think that’s incredible. I am so proud of Beyoncé, because that means the body of work that she did has made that type of impact in the marketplace. Everybody's talking about it. Everybody's tweeting about it. I am so proud."
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Knowles himself appears in the concept video, both in old footage playing with a young Beyoncé and in a recent clip with his granddaughter, Blue Ivy Carter. He brought this up when asked if he's spoken with Beyoncé since the release of her album.
"The media would have you think I've never spoke to Beyoncé. But as you can see in the documentary, me and Blue Ivy was playing," he rebutted. "I'm a grownup. I'm 64 years old. It doesn't bother me what people say about me. I know the facts."
In the end, he admitted that he has not spoken with the GRAMMY winner, but added, "Do I talk to her? Do I see her? Yes."
Beyoncé relationship with her dad is only the latest Lemonade-related controversy. After the movie premiered, the Beyhive accused Rachel Roy of being "Becky with the good hair." The fashion designer denies the lyric refers to her. Find out what she had to say in the video below.