It was like the biggest family picnic there was laughter and music everywhere and everyone dressed in their Texas finest. I especially enjoyed watching Frankie Beverly and Maze perform at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. My mama begged me to take them off! Memories like these I’ll cherish forever. I had a pair of pink cowboy boots that you’d think were glued to my feet. The collaboration is always smooth and the concept of the rodeo took me back to my days growing up in Houston, Texas. Whenever I work with ESSENCE, it feels like home. She also took on the opportunity to write her first cover story, because, she says, “after doing so many interviews in my career…with no one asking me questions, what would I say?” Here Beyoncé shares her journey with ESSENCE readers exclusively.

She spent nine months traveling the world and sorting out her work–play balance. She recently announced that after 15 years of having her career managed by her father, she’s taking the reins herself.

Now with a new life filled with its own thunder and applause, and on the eve of her fourth solo studio album, 4, Beyoncé is stepping up to a new kind of power.

Yet to really understand Beyoncé, you have to tap into one of her fondest memories - how every year Mama and Papa Knowles would treat their girls to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, a spectacle brimming with pageantry and flair. For years the only offstage glimpses we’ve had of BEYONCÉ (who has won 16 Grammy Awards and held six leading film roles) have been paparazzi snapshots of her fabulous life: the yachts, the shopping, the court side seats hugged up with her husband, Jay-Z.

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