Alicia Keys’ memory of Lil Mama crashing the stage during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards is probably different than yours.
Keys and Jay-Z were performing “Empire State Of Mind” when Lil Mama made her way up to stand next to the rapper, however, Keys didn’t even notice since Jay-Z was blocking her view.
Basically, I remember absolutely nothing,” she told Complex. “I think I was so focused on performing. Because when you perform, it’s a lot. You gotta hit it. You gotta nail it. You gotta kill it. It has to be perfect.”
She added, “When I tell you, 100 per cent, I was oblivious to the idea that next to him was another person, which kind of scared the s**t out of me later when I figured it out.”
It wasn’t until they were backstage and Jay-Z told Keys that she found out.
Alicia Keys finally addresses the Lil Mama situation and I’M SCREAMING
pic.twitter.com/UKTO8EOhbr— marco #KEYS 12/10 ➐ (@rapsfoto) December 8, 2021
“I go to my dressing room and his face is like funny. I was, like, ‘Yo, that was so crazy.’ He was, like, ‘You ain’t see that?’ I was like, ‘Huh?'” Keys said.
But Keys isn’t holding a grudge, having told “The Morning Hustle“, “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?”
Jay-Z previously spoke about the moment on Hot 97, saying, “To interrupt that moment for us, I don’t think that was the right thing to do,” the rapper said at the time. “It was a lot of planning that went into that performance. To disrupt that was outta line.”
