Alicia Keys is Racist


Okay, not really, but it sounds catchy, right? What she did do was speak out of turn in an interview, didn't bother to clarify, claimed to be misquoted and immediately started back tracking. Now she said something to the affect of "gangster rap is a ploy [by white music execs] to get black people to kill each other." I'm not going to debate whether or not any of that is true. What is up for debate is who she said it to and why she didn't state her intentions clearer. She spoke out of turn, in mixed company. Mixed company in this case being black and white, not men and women.

This is like Kanye West going on national TV stating that George Bush doesn't like black people. While hilarious and/or true, that was not perhaps the correct forum for that discussion. Mr. West later stated in one of his songs that he was talking on TV as if talking in a closed conversation to a room full of blacks. This is how I feel about Ms. Keys' comment.

She was speaking with implied knowledge that someone outside of the race and/or music industry (this does not include music journalists) would have no clue of the magnitude, significance, tongue and cheek, and inner workings of that statement. The fact that she said something so outlandish reminds me of the crazy musings of Denny Krane (Boston Legal) or Tracy Jordan (30 Rock). Though fictional characters, their crazy laments seem nutzo, but in the context of their character's world, they are quite rational. While Key's statement seems out of touch, with her inner knowledge of the workings of the music industry, perhaps to other artists and music industry professionals, her statement may seem dead on.

Or she's a whack job, your choice.

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