NEW YORK (AP) - There's another side to Alicia Keys: conspiracy theorist. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter tells Blender magazine: "'Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. 'Gangsta rap' didn't exist." Keys, 27, said she's read several Black Panther autobiographies and wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck "to symbolize strength, power and killing 'em dead," according to an interview in the magazine's May issue, on newsstands Tuesday. Another of her theories: That the bicoastal feud between slain rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. was fueled "by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing." Keys' AK-47 jewelry came as a surprise to her mother, who is quoted as telling Blender: "She wears what? That doesn't sound like Alicia." Keys' publicist, Theola Borden, said Keys was on vacation and unavailable for comment. http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20080411/D8VVUAHG0.html
yeah I was starting to warm up to her too... I find these comments to be a bit absurd... but hey, everyone is entitled to their opinions, so good for her for speaking out i guess.
Her theory is that the US government hates black people and invented a way to sit back and watch them kill each other. Utterly ridiculous. It's no different than the "church's chicken" conspiracy where a group of black people felt taht the government invented church's chicken to poison them. If you want to blame anyone for ganster rap, the blame should fall squarely on the shoulders of the music execs who sell it. Their motivation isn't to see young black men kill each other, their motivation is $$$ plain and simple. Money is more important than class in this society, unfortunately the world is doomed because the intelligence level is dropping faster than a pass to Derek Hagan. I posted this on another forum
Pfftt. Alicia Keys is silly. Everyone knows we invented crack to kill black people, not 'Gangsta Rap'
Stupidest thing I ever read. I think it was designed to make White People want to kill themselves when they catch their kids listening to it.
hate to break it to her and her black panther buddies but there were gangs before gangsta rap slinging that dope and there will be gangs after it. If anything all gangsta rap did was bring gangs to white suburbia
You can say the same about any type of music. It's all a bunch of crap. Influences? People will do what the hell people want to do. That's just life. Stop blaming every and anything else.
back in the late 80's, when the soft drink Cheerwine was first introduced it was extremely popular. sold like crazy in my area, then suddenly sales nosedived. i was working for the local Coca Cola distributorship at the time and everyone was at a loss to figure out why. then the local news reported that there was a rumor that Cheerwine would sterilize blacks people. and apparently many black folks believed it, and they quit drinking it. but no one could ever explain to me how exactly the soft drink would know whether a white person or a black person was drinking it, and then sterilize only the black folks...
Hey, if she wants to peddle the Blank Panther racist ideology, whatever. Just dont be hatin' on all the white people that buy your albums and support your ridiculously lavish lifestyle. By the way, give back to the community instead of talking about how bad white people are.
Thats pretty funny. My buddy works for Pepsi and he was trying to tell me about some kind of 'Soda Wars' between Coke and Pepsi that apparently got pretty nasty. I remember when I was kid there was a huge hu-bub about a syringe found in a can of Pepsi...
Well... I think it's absurd for many reasons. For one, I don't think gangsta rap makes anyone kill anyone. Many many many killings and murders (gang related and otherwise) happen worldwide where gangsta rap isn't even well known. To think a group of people were in a room saying, "I have an idea... Let's take this rap music the black kids like so much and let's have them talk about killing. Next, they'll just all die!!" Is ridiculous to me. I listen to mostly rap. Most of that rap is what people would consider gangsta rap.
Well there lies the problem with theories like this. It would assume that the people who did so believed the black race to be susceptible to drugs, violent music etc. enough that it would keep their race down so to speak. And if said conspiracy is true those blaming it for the state of the black race are themselves stating the white power structure was right................... does that make sense?
Alicia Keys says she's not a conspiracy theorist. In a statement issued Tuesday, Keys said she was clarifying "comments that were made during my recent Blender magazine interview since they have been misrepresented." According to an interview in the magazine's May issue, the 27-year-old singer says: "'Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. 'Gangsta rap' didn't exist." She also is quoted as saying that she wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck "to symbolize strength, power and killing 'em dead." "We stand by our story," Blender spokeswoman Kate Cafaro told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "My comments about 'gangsta rap' were in no way trying to suggest that the government is responsible for creating this genre of rap music," Keys said in a statement issued by J Records. "The point that I was trying to make was that the term was oversloganized 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." As for the AK-47 remark, Keys said Tuesday that AK-47 is a nickname given to her by friends "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." When AP attempted to reach Keys last week about the Blender interview, her publicist, Theola Borden, said the singer was on vacation and unavailable for comment. http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20080415/D902J0G00.html
yeah, sure alicia... great PR spin... give that PR person a raise!!! I love how these celebs go out there, make ridiculous statements, and then always say... well no, the magazine misrepresented my statements, and i really meant to say this....... I love how Blender chose to stand up for themselves as all mags usually do and stand by their story. And I don't doubt them one bit that what the printed, is exactly as she said it. But what happens in the end? Everyone believes the celeb because of their PR people and the BS lines they feed us afterwards... and it all just seems to... "fade away" rather sad I think...
That annoys the living hell out of me. If you have sh-- to talk about, dont go to the media and tell them. I know they want publicity but if your going to set your self up in this situation, why do that? Keep it to yourself or just keep it indoors OR if you choose to make a comment like that, say it how you "meant" it in the first place so you dont have this problem.
