Conspiracy Theorist Alicia Keys

UPDATE, April 15, 2008: Alicia Keys says comments to magazine were 'misrepresented'

The damage control begins....
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I knew Alicia Keys was a musical talent. I didn't know she was a nut.

NEW YORK -- 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."

...Though she's known for her romantic tunes, she told Blender that she wants to write more political songs. If black leaders such as the late Black Panther Huey Newton "had the outlets our musicians have today, it'd be global. I have to figure out a way to do it myself," she said.

Wow.

If Keys really made those statements, she's quite a loon.

Gangsta Rap was a government ploy to get black to kill each other?

The government and the media plotted to get Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. killed in order to keep "another great black leader from existing"?

No offense to either man, but which one had the right stuff to be a "great black leader"? I wasn't aware of a budding Martin Luther King there.

And she wears a gold AK-47 pendant "to symbolize strength, power and killing 'em dead"?

So Keys wants somebody killed. Who?

I hope this is all wrong, that none of it's true.

I hope Keys sets the record straight, that she was misquoted or that these comments attributed to her were completely fabricated.

That doesn't appear to be the case.

From Blender, "Alicia Keys: Unlocked":

On As I Am, during the fem-powerment jam “Superwoman,” Keys belts out the caucus-ready refrain, “Yes I can,” and, indeed, there’s something Obama-esque about her.... Like Obama, she won a crucial Oprah endorsement early on when Winfrey built a whole episode around Songs in A Minor. And she preaches a uniting, post-racial vision of humanity. (Remember those “I Am African” ads with Gwyneth Paltrow and David Bowie wearing face paint? They were for the AIDS charity to which Keys is an ambassador.) In her music, themes of optimism, fidelity and self-actualization are so broadly, rousingly articulated that nearly anyone can feel their own stories are being belted back at them.

...Add another line to her résumé. Alicia Keys: piano stroker, budding actress… and conspiracy theorist? This is the side of her that doesn’t square with the media-trained pro—the side your mom probably doesn’t know about when she hums “No One” on the way to Walgreens. This Alicia pores over Black Panther autobiographies (“I’ve read Huey Newton’s, Assata Shakur’s, David Hilliard’s …”). This Alicia says Tupac and Biggie were essentially assassinated, their beefs stoked “by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing.” This Alicia wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck, “to symbolize strength, power and killing ’em dead.” (“She wears what?” her mom asks Blender. “That doesn’t sound like Alicia.”)

No matter how many records she sells or Super Bowls she opens, Keys still doesn’t feel she quite belongs in the mainstream. She likes to think talent transcends prejudice, but she knows that if her skin were darker, she’d have a much harder time crossing over. “I’ll always be an outsider,” she says.

This might surprise the Grammy committee: Last year, the New York Police Department declassified documents revealing that they’d put Keys under surveillance prior to the 2004 Republican National Convention. The department released a statement explaining that they’d targeted “those openly talking of anarchist actions.” Keys, who had spoken publicly against President Bush and donated $500 to the Democratic National Committee that year, was suddenly labeled an enemy of the state. “Hell,” she says. “Someone’s gotta be an anarchist.”

...She’s said that “Go Ahead” [on As I Am] is a Dubya body slam: “What have you given me but lies, lies, lies?” she snarls. But unapprised listeners will hear it as a shimmying rebuke to a dirtbag boyfriend.

Keys talks about the government plotting to wipe out black people. That's "Obama-esque"? That doesn't sound at all like she "preaches a uniting, post-racial vision of humanity."

Actually, I think she's more Rev. Wright-esque, but I guess that eventually leads to Obama-esque.

We don't need yet another celebrity nutjob, but it seems we have one.

Oh joy!