In the heat of a performance, the brain can do some crazy things. Plenty of artists and performers can attest to out-of-body experiences, and losing time altogether. Take Alicia Keys: during her 2009 MTV Video Music Awards performance, she missed a major event. No, she knew Jay-Z was right beside her. In fact, to hear her tell it, the two of them absolutely killed it on stage. That’s just the thing, though: there were three of them on the stage at Radio City Music Hall.
Skip ahead to the 5:00 mark for a “guest” appearance.
Alicia Keys, tuned out and zoned in
That’s Brooklyn rapper Lil Mama joining them on-stage, just 19 at the time. The “Lip Gloss” rapper caught the consternation of Jay-Z, but Keys simply tuned it out. To her, it was just herself and Hov crushing it that night.
“The truth of all the truths — all I know, we was on that stage,” Keys said on a recent episode of Drink Champs. “Jay was here, I was here. In my head, I was such a gorilla at the time and I was like, ‘This is what’s happening. I’m going to destroy this record tonight.’ … Somehow, however she got over here, I didn’t even bear witness to.”
Keys continued:
“The whole show I was iced — so focused on making it amazing. I went backstage and Jay-Z was like, ‘So, you ain’t see that?’ And I was like, ‘What?’ He was like, ‘Nah, you ain’t just see what just happened?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, we killed it. That’s what happened.’”
Check out a clip from the Drink Champs interview here.
The spectacle was nearly stopped from happening by the intervention of none other than Beyoncé. But up to the stage she went. Then came the look from Jay-Z. All the while, Keys was in the zone, riding a performance high that couldn’t be stopped.
More than twelve years on, Keys says that any bad blood is just water under the bridge. Back in October, Keys spoke on The Morning Hustle regarding he Lil Mama crash, saying:
“That was then. You know, she’s from New York, too. You know, I think she really felt the energy of the record and she loved it and she couldn’t hold herself back. Look, this is what my music does to people. What can we say?”
Garrett C. Owen