NEWS: Alicia Keys: Off-Key Conspiracy

CULTURE: Alicia Keys: Off-Key Conspiracy

Celebrities making uninformed asinine comments is nothing new. You could easily compile a book of them. (Most likely, a paperback book with extra large font, featuring a collage of pasted "wacky" celeb expressions on the cover that you'd be ashamed to buy for the asked $12.99 but would flip through at least once.)

So, yeah, it's been covered. The best kind, however, are those which feature one of the following:

- A celeb SO out of their depths subject-wise that the very idea of them even acknowledging the situation is laughable, regardless of their position.

- A celeb trying to recast themselves in the public as someone with ideas and theories -- a provacateur, if you will. Even when those ideas are clearly parroted from some other source. Sort of the "take me seriously" path. "Hey guys... sure, I'm some douche best known for blank... but think about this thing here... THINK ABOUT IT."

- A celeb who is wrong.

- A celeb who, when they speak up, makes you question why they're a celeb in the first place.

- A celeb who's a musician.

The following comment has 4 out of 5.

That's a nice way of saying "wack-job."

WOW. Hey there nut-ball, that's enough for today, why don't you find yerself a nice place to grab some shuteye, you're clearly very tired...

Where do you start with that? Maybe by mentioning that gansta rap probably wouldn't have been as successful if the gang life it was referencing hadn't already existed. "Man I love this NWA song!! And I can't wait to find out what the line ''bodies being hauled off' is referencing!"

Other likely Keys theories? Television brought about the birth of radio, daytime imprisons nighttime in a cave somewhere when we don't see it, and every theory put forth by Martin Lawrence's character in the Eddie Murphy vehicle Boomerang. (Sample from memory, "If pool isn't racist, how come the game ends when the white ball drives all the colored balls, and then the black ball, off the green table?"

What's that quote about a little knowledge being a dangerous thing? Oh, that was it? Cool.

I think that doubly applies when the "little bit of information" is received from the Black Panthers... I'm not sure she's quite ready to be pouring through information from one of the most divisive, controversial and violent groups in recent history. Maybe stick to those thinner, flimsier books they sell at grocery store checkout stands. Like that book, The National Enquirer, or that US Weekly book.

Ahhh, I take it all back, WHAT WAS I WORRIED ABOUT? This young lady has got it on the ball!

Tupac's to-do list:

Step 1 - Star in Poetic Justice with Janet Jackson.

Step 2 - Lead the world!

He was a great rapper but, c'mon, no way he was even top 20 on the list of people the gov't wanted to kill.

The nonsensical musings just keep coming...

But, NO ONE had those outlets back then. And now, EVERY FAMOUS PERSON DOES, BLACK AND WHITE ALIKE. Including many great black leaders.

And really? That's what held Huey Newton back? His message not getting out? People weren't clear on what he was about?

I'm sure Huey's admirers everywhere are thrilled to hear it. However, I can think of a few better more pressing issues you should be working on.




TheCoolerKing wishes he had slightly more new material for tonight's show.

Alicia Keys likes to do this thing where she tries to impose herself into new things such as movies, or hey.. this bullshit , fightthewhitepeople hate the gvt crazy lady theorist... actually, those are the only things outside of music she's tried thus far.
Either way. She shouldn't. Stick to singing your heart breaky songs so heart breaky 13 yr olds have something to listen to while they put on their lips gloss.
I'm not even sure she should be doing music anymore either. Someone should send her on a search for that cave night time imprisons daytime in so she just goes away.

Gangsta rap doesn't exist? I could of sworn it most certainly did, when I was back in high school and every single fucking kid other then me was listening to it.

I guess all those kids were just cogs in the conspiracy machine.

Shouldn't she should stop flapping her gums and start singing again? Quickly? I mean, EVERYONE knows that piano driven, heartfelt RnB with an innercity edge exists only because of the grand conspiracy to keep angry, Rock n Roll and Country Western listening, 14 year old boys from growing up and ascending to positions within government...right?

Yes. How dare someone with fame and talent express their thoughts publicly.

That's the problem everyone has a voice and too many people are talking at the same time. I vote on a national shut-the-fuck-up day every month.

Holy crap! A celebrity/musician saying ridiculously absurd things...No fucking way.

haha Chuck D should go upside her head

I read this but did any one who is actually black read this?........any one?........from the comments it does not look like it,what to make of that I don't know.

She is still invited to come over and sit on my lap. Otherwise her politics, while admittedly zany, don't bother me.

Alica Keys needs to stay home and work on her pitch first.

Indeed. How dare she not produce more music to put on your iPod!

ummm, ya...

haha HATERS!!!!

who cares what her personal views are...shes music, thats all

"pull that tapeworm outta ur ass HEY!"

If she's going to use her fame as a singer to get her crazy personal views published, it is not unreasonable to hope she would at least be deserving of aforementioned fame.

Goddamn, I think the way people on here are reacting is quite amusing.

Personally, I don't really care for Alicia Keys. She just some cute chick with a cute voice that plays cute song for cute girls real cute-like. But as far as her being this "crazy" conspiracy theorist, she's pretty tame. Trust, some of shit she's talking about have going around for years. It's really nothing new. Besides, she ain't exactly saying "Kill Whitey" or anything like that. Doesn't really bother me.

However, I would point out that maybe she got some of those theories after this happen to her.

From the same article:

Just sayin'

My wife is black. She thinks Alicia's a nutball. Not that I think her opinion (or anyone else's really) is representative of the black community. Just that she just happened to give me her opinion right as I was reading this comment...

Gangsta rap was successful because gang life existed? That's infinitely dumber than anything Alicia Keys has said and almost as dumb as some of her songs.

I think Keys main point was pretty clear. It wasn't just gangs or young blacks responsible for the success, production or marketing of gangsta rap and that the term didn't exist PRIOR to its huge success. It's not that surprising a point to make, even though I don't really agree with her conclusions that she draws from that.

There was a time when rap music, primarily "Gangsta Rap" (a term not given to it by Hip-Hop fans), wasn't played on the radio and it's music videos seldom got airplay in popular media (a half an hour on Yo MTV Raps once or twice a day). It gave the music a since of "Taboo" and gave it's more contraversal artist (NWA, The 2 Live Crew, Too Short and others) the socially negative label they deserved.

When rap became widely acceptable and played on pop radio stations, it was the negative aspect of the genre that dominated the airwaves. So called "Hip-Hop Culture" magazines (The Source) only recognized "Gangsta Rap" artist. Now you have The Ying Yang Twins, 50 Cent, Jay-Z and others glorifying violence, degrading women, promoting drugs and being, just plain, vulgar on popular music stations all over.

Rap, like most music these days, has become about image (Video did kill the radio star). The women have to be sexy and rappers have to be "Gangsta" and have "Street Creditablility". Rappers, like Fabulous and 50 Cent, have exaggerated and/or fictiocious backgrounds and are given cash advances by their labels to buy jewelry to create an image of being a big time, money making gangsta! Stories that people who are truly a part of the Hip-Hop culture know aren't true because we knew of them before they were celebrities.

The term "Gangsta Rap" didn't exist till it was named by the media. It is now one of the top selling music genres in America. It also glorifies a lifestyle that no one with any real sense of morallity should try to live. But show it to a young and impressionable person trying to fit in and be "Cool" and you have a recipe for violence and social disaster.

On a side note, the O.P. should do some research on the Black Panther Party and its founders before making statements about them. You seem to have the wrong impression of who the group were and what they stood for. They were given labels such as "Anarchist" and "Communist" by officials as well. And they were neither.

What are you talking about? I'm not saying it's the only factor, just that it's a necessary one. So you're saying that gangsta rap would've been just as big had there not been gang violence, gangs, etc. already in place? The music drew attention to what was already going on.

Yes, her point is clear, and completely ridiculous. She's saying "gangsta rap was a ploy for black people to kill each other." Not acknowledging that gangs were killing each other before the music existed. That is drastically different than your more defensible comment that many people later exploited and/or manipulated rap for financial gain.

And I don't get the point of saying something didn't exist before it existed. That is true for everything under the sun. The issue is who created it and why. The answer is "not the gov't."

I'm familiar with the Black Panthers in a general, broadstrokes way, meaning most of their larger moments throughout history. Not claiming to be an expert. How do I have wrong impression of them?

Considering their, at times, violent actions I don't think I was harsh at all. I passed no judgement, merely said that someone of Key's lack of intelligence should perhaps stick to parroting less complicated/controversial issues and viewpoints.

A lot of issues are being brought up in this thread, just to remind people....
popular music getting airplay has been promoting violence,drugs and degrading women long before rap ever exsisted,...gangsta rap is just the new kid to the block to follow suit..

"I am gonna make you sweat..sweat til you can't sweat no more...and if you cry out, I am gonna give it to you some more.'-can't remember

"johnny is in the basement, cooking up the medicine"-bob dylan

"she was just 17,... you know what i mean..."-beattles

".saw him there by the record machine...he must have been all of about 17....blah,blah,..wanna take you home...blah,blah,...and play my favourite song..."-joan jett

"wanna give you every inch of my love."-led zep

"i killed a man, just to watch him die."-johnny cash

"There she blows..There she blows again..Pulsing through my veins....And I just can't contain...This feeling that remains."-the la's

"she's alright, she's alright...cocaine..."

"anarchy for the u.k..."-the sex pistols

As for her statement that protest voices didn't have the same media influence that singers have today...um,..has she heard stevie wonders song "you haven't done noth'n."? or heard any of lead belly?..how bout joe hill?

To suggest gangsta rap, with all of its references to sex,drugs and violence, was a tool invented by the government to encourage black youth to kill each other is a HUGE call...these themes have existed in music for the last 30 years prior to rap even being recognised as a genre unto itself... the notion of one particular group of people killing each other simply because they were swayed to by music is simply dumb on a profound level...if the government developed gangsta rap for african american youth to kill each other, the best tool they could possibly have come up with would have been vanilla ice,...which would also explain how he even got into the charts in the first place.

That's true. Violent and sexual lyrics have been present the American music for centuries. Though most people don't wanna acknowledge that. Or if they make excuses for it, saying that the lyrics in those days weren't as explicit as the ones today. So, yeah, in that respect I think Keys was a lil off.

Trust if the government wanted to kill Black youth, I don't think they would've used music. The government's been very active in squashing dissenting voices especially during the 70s with their COINTELPRO program that targeting left wing activist groups(including the Panthers)through sabotage, creating dissension within the ranks, false propaganda and just str8 up murder. However, despite all that, I think the government is too crusty, white and old to think up something that'll appeal to black youth today.

Um, she never says the government created it. Anywhere.

Of course, I already said i think shes wrong in her conclusions...but the question of why gangsta rap was so promoted in the 90s by white-owned media is an interesting one.

I think some of the people in this thread should do some studying on their own. As FredAintDead said, this is nothing new.