Beyonce Unwrapped

Beyonce Giselle Knowles is tirelessly parading the length of a dance studio trying to perfect a rather awkward move. She's rehearsing to her debut single, "Crazy in Love"-a horn-laced duet with her much-rumored love interest, rapper Jay-Z-from her just-released solo album, Dangerously in Love.

Breaking her stride, she offers me a breathy, "Howyoudoin?" and a warm, sweaty hug. Without the makeup and the glitzy fashions, Beyonce could be mistaken for the bright-eyed teen she was when Destiny's Child signed its first recording deal. I'm slightly taken aback. Because of her phenomenal stardom, I half expect the attitude, ego and drama that go with being a diva.

After all, Beyonce is everywhere-Pepsi commercials, L'Oreal ads, films (Austin Powers in Goldmember and next month's The Fighting Temptations), awards shows, you name it. Yet, despite her fast-rising star and busy life, instead of being unapproachable, controlling, vain or bitchy, she oozes kindness, subtle vulnerability.

After practice, she throws her stuff in a bag, and we head out for dinner. "I'm really open for anything," she says politely.

"Egyptian okay?" I ask.

We agree on the time. But as she makes her way toward her SUV, she turns back to me and mumbles, "Um, I just don't want the story to be about a fabulous restaurant and how fabulous I am and..." Her voice trails off. I understand: After hours of rehearsal, this uberperformer wants to relax.

"Well, we can go to Brooklyn," I suggest cautiously. "To my house. I mean, it's a mess, but comfortable. We can order takeout from the Jamaican spot." She pauses. In my head, in this second, I want to swallow those words. Why would uou put her on the spot like this? Ridiculous.

Two hours later, Beyonce is in Crown Heights, Brooldyn. Talk about keeping it real. Within the first ten minutes, she chats by cell with her father ("Okay, Daddy. I love you, Daddy"), her mother ("Kierna, this is my mom!"), and her baby sister, Solange. They are all in different places.

Sitting on a pillow on my living-room floor offers Beyonce a rare moment of intimacy, introspection and a break from the madness. She trusts me enough to come to my home, so I drop the interviewer mode and let her lead the conversation. As we share a basket of spicy jerk chicken, Beyonce makes it clear that even though she is famous and fabulous, she hasn't forgotten how to just be.

On Being a Grown-up

"My life, my job and responsibilities, and the pressures I've had have forced me to mature faster. When I had to do the movie Carmen at 18, I matured the most. It doesn't seem like a big thing, but I was away from home, away from everything. Besides a new job, I had to make friends in a new city. I call it my college. I also had to write the song "Survivor," and sometimes I look back and think, How did I do that? I had to depend on myself, and I had to grow. After that, I felt more confident, like I could accomplish anything."

The Demands of Celebrity

"There's no way of preparing a person for this. And the older you get and the bigger you get, the harder it is to separate your personal life and your public life. It's definitely a sacrifice. And I'm learning that there are certain personal things you don't have to talk about. Eventually I want to have a private life and not have to worry about people in my business. Sometimes I think, What if I get too famous? And I get scared. Eventually I want to go to the store or go to a mall, or have kids, get married and not worry about being recognized."

Connecting With Black Women

"In my mother's hair salon, I was surrounded by Black women. I saw them come in there and use the salon for therapy. That experience taught me to have respect for Black women. We go through the same things, we understand each other, and we feel each other. It's a special connection. I love when I come across a Black woman with an aura so strong, you can just see the wisdom. I want to talk and talk with her so I can listen and learn-soak up as much as I can."

Supersensitive

"I'm really sensitive, deeply affected by things around me. But I try not to let anybody else know. I worry about people's opinion of me or if something's going wrong for a family member. Sometimes it gets so bad that I don't sleep; I stay up and think all night about everything, trying to make sense of it, to make it logical. I try to find a lesson in everything. More than anything, I'm a thinker."

Her Mother's Daughter

"I'm so blessed. My mother is a rock in our family. When my dad stopped working his full-time job to manage us, everybody thought he was crazy. But my mother stood by him. She said, Tm his wife and I have my business, and I'm going to work extra hours.' If she hadn't made that sacrifice, I wouldn't be where I am. We went from the house to an apartment, from three cars to two. She completely took care of our family.

"My mom really knows me. I can cry in front of her. I can be sad, I can be mad, selfish, wrong. Whatever I am, I can be in front of her."

Come Sunday

"Church is my sanctuary, the place I go to let go. Every time I go to church, I feel like I'm baptized, I can start over. I go to church and cry from happiness, sadness, and feel rejuvenated. Whatever's wrong in my life, I am relaxed and at peace when I can feel God. I know everything is okay when I am connected with God."

Big Sister

"I'm very proud of my sister and protective of her. Solange is the one person I will fight for. Don't talk about my sister; don't play with me about my sister. If you do, you'll see another side of me. I admire her, and though she's five years younger than me, I strive to be like her. She's so smart and secure. She's sensitive to people's feelings, but not afraid of what they think."

Happiness

"My main accomplishment is achieving peace and happiness. Sometimes you think it's success, and you think that it's being a big star. But I want respect, and I want friendship and love and laughter, and I want to grow. Accomplishing something I worked really hard for makes me happy."

Being Beyonce

"People are so surprised when they meet me. Surprised about everything-from me not having on as much makeup as they expected to the way I look at people. I make eye contact. I want people to feel me.

Kierna Mayo, cofounder and former editor-in-chief of Honey, is launching a new magazine, LikePepper. asha bandele: What are the biggest misperceptions about you?

Tina Knowles: People say that I'm a stage mother, which is crazy. I never encouraged my girls to go into entertainment. In fact, I tried to steer Solange, Beyonce's 17-year-old sister, away from it because it's a business that demands so much from people. But it's what she wanted. With Beyonce, it was different. She was very shy as a child, not popular. But she loved to dance. So when she was 7, we put her in dance class-to make friends more than anything else. When we saw her on stage for the first time, it was incredible. I'd never seen her so alive and confident. We didn't want to live through her. If she wanted to become a doctor or athlete, if that made her happy, we would've done anything to make it happen. My husband and I had a great life in Houston before Destiny's Child. We had a beautiful home; he was making six figures. I had the top hair salon in Houston. Destiny's Child happened because it brought Beyonce joy. asha: It must have been a difficult adjustment for the family then, getting into the business.

Tina: It was. We lost our house shortly after my husband, Mathew, left his job to manage the girls under their first record deal. Then we lost that deal. Mathew would spend $5,000 of our money on a photo shoot, while I was working 16 hours a day to support us. I felt like the group was more important to him than his family. So we separated for six months. But we were miserable apart. We got back together and never let money separate us again. We've been together 23 years. asha: There must still be a lot of stress, though, because there's so much in the entertainment business that a mother would want to protect a daughter from.

Tina: Absolutely. The biggest thing I've wanted to protect Beyonce from is the judgment of people who think they know everything about her. I wish people could really see how nice and humble and generous she is. I wish I could protect my daughters from all the hurtful comments, but I can't. What I want for them, more than anything, is peace and happiness. It's not about money or celebrity, or any of that stuff. It's about being happy, because I think in life, that's the hardest thing to get. asha: You're the stylist for Destiny's Child. What's your dividing line between sexy and cheap?

Tina: Beyonce is 21 years old, so I can't tell her what to wear. There's nothing wrong with being sexy, but I draw the line at body parts hanging out, G-strings showing, or too much cleavage. And Beyonce's judgment is good. Just yesterday she was doing a photo shoot, and she told them she didn't want to have her stomach out because she was growing up and wanted to look more sophisticated. asha: Do you wish you'd done anything differently?

Tina: I wouldn't change a thing, because we've grown so much from everything we've been through. When we got knocked down and had to sell our house, we grew closer as a family, and more protective of one another. And it really means something now when I tell my girls not to let people ever make them think they're bigger than anyone else. They know this could all be gone tomorrow, so their legacy should be who they were as people, not entertainers.