: MediaTakeOut.com told you a few days ago that Blender magazine published a scathing article of Alicia Keys - portraying her as having some very radical beliefs. But now Alicia has come out blasting the magazine - claiming that they misreprestnted and lied in the article.
Here's Alicia's official response:
I feel it is necessary to clarify the comments that were made during my recent Blender magazine interview since they have been misrepresented.We're with you Alicia ... don't let them try and hold you back...Anyone who knows me and my character, knows that I am not a conspiracy theorist or, by implication, a racist. My comments about ‘gangsta rap’ were in no way trying to suggest that the government is responsible for creating this genre of rap music. The point that I was trying to make was that the term was over-sloganized by some of the media causing reactions that were not always positive. Many of the ‘gangsta rap’ lyrics articulate the problems of the artists’ experiences and I think all of us, including our leaders, could be doing more to address these problems including drugs, gang violence, crime, and other related social issues.”
“Additionally, regarding the AK-47 reference, AK-47 is a nickname given to me by some of my friends in jest, as an acronym for Alicia Keys and a metaphor for wowing people with my music and performances, “killing ‘em dead” on stage. The reference was in no way meant to have a literal, political or negative connotation.
The recent implications about me are too radical and too dramatic a departure from whom I have continually demonstrated myself to be. I work so hard and give so much of myself to bring about positive change to this world, and I only wish those efforts received as much press and attention as the misinterpretations of the Blender article.
Gone then Alicia. Beauty with brains. Doesn't get any better than that.
Represent for all us beautiful, black, intelligent sisters, who are just trying to make the world a better place, little by little.
I love this chick. Other females in the game would have tripped over their own tongues during that conversation. Heffers take notes. LOL
Reporters are known for cutting and pasting interviews. That's how they sell magazines. It's kind of like when a website takes an innocent pic and builds a "story" around it. That same site might post a pic of a celebrity who is in an interracial relationship, so they can get a few hundred hits and people can vent about how wrong it is. Hmmmmm. That does sound familiar.
Alicia Keys is a stunning, intelligent, positive woman, and it is unfortunate that Blender twisted her words so that she has to clean up their mess. Because she handled this right away, I doubt that this will damage her career in the long run.
Go AK. LOVE the charm on her necklace! I knew her statement was taken out of context, that is so unlike her to say something foolish like that.
Since music is so universal, I think it's great that she's interested in using hers to make positive change in the world. MANY, MANY artists have done this, including James Brown (a side nobody hears about), Ray Charles, how about Common and Lyfe Jennings? Alicia is doing great things in Africa too, she is using her gift to the max...love her! She is going down in history as one of the greats, hear me?
She didn't say that the magazine misinterpreted what she said, she was basically saying that readers did.
In the actual radio interviews, she was on the Ryan Seacrest radio show and the Tom Joyner radio show on Tuesday, the only thing that she said was misleading was the AK-47 comment.
But, as for her comments about gangsta rap and Biggie and 2Pac, she never said that the article twisted her words or that those quotes were incorrect.
She said that she didn't fully clarify, to the interviewer, what she meant by those statements. So, really that was her fault for assuming that everybody understood what she was trying to say.
So, now she is kind of cleaning up this situation, before things got too out of hand.
please, hiphop still needs to die. it's not a plot made by the govt, it's a plot made by BLACK PEOPLE to kill other BLACK PEOPLE and only praise others for what they have and who they are. and black folks wonder why white people always think of us as n1gg3rs...while these corny azz kids are trying to emulate them, they could be reading a book right now
