Photo Credit: Samsung Memory

The theft occurred on July 8, 2025 when thieves broke into a rental SUV belonging to Beyoncé’s choreographer, Christopher Grant and a backup dancer, Diandre Blue. The incident took place in a parking lot near downtown Atlanta, just days before Beyoncé’s final performance at Mercedes-Benz Stadium as part of her Cowboy Carter tour.

The stolen items included hard drives containing unreleased, watermarked tracks, video footage, tour plans, and both past and upcoming set lists. Also taken in the theft were two MacBook laptops, Apple headphones, and luxury accessories. According to police reports, the thieves shattered the vehicle’s rear window and made off with two suitcases containing the sensitive material. Surveillance footage captured the incident and authorities have since issued an arrest warrant for a suspect, though no arrest has been made yet.

Christopher Grant also informed police that he was carrying personal sensitive information for Beyoncé at the time of the theft. The Atlanta Police Department’s Larceny from Auto Unit is leading the investigation into the theft. The suspect vehicle has been identified as a 2025 red Hyundai Elantra.

In the digital age, the question of backups and cloud storage is ever-present, especially for high-profile artists like Beyoncé. However, concerns about leaks, piracy, and unauthorized access often lead artists and their teams to avoid cloud-based solutions for unreleased material. As a result, physical storage devices like USB drives remain a common choice, despite the risks of theft or loss.

Unreleased music is occasionally stolen in this manner. In 2011, electronic music producer Skrillex had two laptops and two hard drives stolen from his hotel room in Milan, Italy. These devices contained an entire album’s worth of new material, which Skrillex says set him back several months as he had to re-create what he lost.

Producer Ryan Leslie faced something similar in 2010 when his backpack containing a laptop and external drive with unreleased session files was stolen in Germany. Leslie offered a $20,000 reward for the return of the files, later raising it to $1 million. When the laptop was returned but the files were corrupted, Leslie refused to pay. However, a court later ordered him to pay the full amount plus interest.