Alicia Keys Clears the Air--Kinda

Tue., Apr. 15, 2008 12:47 PM PDT by Mayrav Saar

Andrew Eccles for Blender Magazine

Listening to Alicia Keys on Ryan Seacrest’s KIIS-FM radio show this morning felt like watching someone wake up in the arms of an ugly, ugly stranger after a night of Midori shots.

After her recent sensational Blender article, Keys has had to do some pointed damage control, explaining that she’s not a government-hating, media-bashing conspiracy theorist. She was just “misinterpreted.”

Right. Because there are so many ways to interpret the quote “Gangsta rap is a ploy to convince black people to kill each other.”

But she goes on to explain:

To clarify that statement—what I was saying at the interview—the term gangsta rap was so over-sloganized during that time... and that in so many ways, everyday people, as well as the government, could have done so much more to really obliterate and eradicate things that were going on in the community at that time that forced the artists to talk about and discuss so strongly what they saw, what they lived with every day.

That's great, Alicia. If only it made any sense at all. Still, we like the singer, so we're going to give her another chance.

Back to you Ryan:

Ryan: There's a quote in the magazine saying you said Tupac and Biggie were assassinated, quote, "by the government and the media to stop another great black leader from existing." What did you mean by that?

Alicia: OK again, just so everything's clarified, in regards to Biggie and Tupac...I feel like during that time, some people in the media definitely—overall, it was just an oversensationalized situation, and I think that what happens is when other people are telling stories, and two grown men as in 'Pac and Biggie—I don't feel like they were able to really communicate with each other and really tell each other what they meant. Instead, it kinda came through different outlets and different people, and it might have gotten misconstrued or misinterpreted, and therefore, all of the information that came back, I feel, led to some negative consequences.

So I am not implying we don't know who killed Biggie and 'Pac. It's sad that we don't still, to this day, and it's been over 10 years. But I do feel like, had more communication been done between the two of them, I feel like, more likely than not, that result would have not happened. I think that we just need more communication.

Actually, Alicia, in your case maybe we need less communication. Like a lot less.