Alicia Keys on Her Self Titled Album, Hosting The Grammys & Feeling Like Herself

Big Boy Neighborhood, it is a beautiful day in the neighborhood, ladies and gentlemen. Back in the neighborhood, Alicia Keys. Welcome back to the neighborhood. How you feeling? I'm so good. You're always great energy. Thank you. You are always great energy, man. Thank you. And Generous, she said that she was going to send me this jumpsuit. Soon as she walked in, we start claiming stuff. We're attacking her for the ice part. She's like, oh, you brought me my suit. I told her straight up, I was like, man, how good would I look in those hoops? I'm just ready to take any and everything. So Alicia Keys, first off, before we get into the new album, the book, the Grammys, everything. I remember years ago, you came to the neighborhood and I was over 500 pounds. Fuzzy was 400 pounds. Joe was 300, 300 something pounds. And we gave you a shirtless lap dance. Alicia Keys, you didn't come back to the neighborhood for years. Yeah, I remember that. I do remember that. You didn't come back until I lost weight. That was a real situation. Yeah, yeah, man. That was so compromising. I was like, that was a moment. I remember when we were coming, the terror in her eyes. Yeah, everything after that was, she did phoners. Like, where are you at? I'm downstairs. I'm in Istanbul. So you ready to do it all again, huh? What the hell made you give me a lap dance like that? You know what, man? I'm going to tell you straight up, Alicia Keys. I can see it in your eyes. What? You know what I'm saying? Of course, this is before Swizz Beatz. You know what I'm saying? I can just see it in your eyes. She was like, you know what? And you were like, dude, I've never had a 500 pound black man, shirtless, do this to me. But you got to think, Alicia Keys, you have a lot of memories. You know what I'm saying? You have a lot of memories of performing. There's some things that you probably did that you don't even remember that people got to recall you to. Oh, yeah, I remember that girl. No, it does trigger. It does trigger my memories. That one you remember. That, oh, I will have it. You know why, honey? Because I tattooed your brain. I remember when it was time for me to lose weight. I thought about like, man, and it was a few things I thought about. I thought about, will I still be big boy? You know what I'm saying? And then I was like, you know what? I might as well because I'm going to be remembered as I'm going to be dead. I didn't think I was going to live another year. And another thing was like, man, will Alicia Keys still accept me with this new guy? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I thought about it and I was like, I got to, you know, and it's not about you. I had to do it for me. I'm here for you. I had to do it for me. And now, look, you came back. You came back. Now, when I was saying you're ready to do it all, you're ready to do it all again. Yeah, man. Seventh album, studio album. Yeah, man. That's crazy. Bye, you called Alicia. Does it trip you out that it's been almost 20 years? It is definitely mind blowing to me, you know, to be able to say that, you know, I've had this level of love, you know, from the beginning. And it's an honor. It's an honor for me. You know, to me, it's like music is so powerful and there's nothing like it. And it's like the one thing that we can all get, you know, no matter where, what's up or how we feel or whatever. And so I feel honored to be a part of that, you know, and I feel like timeless music is just like, it's just, you know, it's never, it's always ready. Why album number seven? Why self-titled, self-entitled like Alicia? Yeah, because, and I've never been more myself, you know, I never been fully Alicia the way that I am right now. But when did you realize that? Because we never felt like you were sending a representation of yourself. Right, and I never was, by the way. I've never sent, I've never been phony or not really, I was always myself in that time. Right, yeah, yeah, gotcha. You know what I mean? So that was always real. And I've always been, as you know, you know, one of the realest people you've ever met. I've never had a fake persona or nothing like that. But I felt like now I know all the sides of Alicia, because I think that as humans, we kind of like get to know that one side, like, oh, we're going to play this side because most of our friends know me like this. Or when I'm at work, I'm going to be this side because I got to kind of present this version to the, or when I'm with my parents, I do this version, you know, we kind of like section ourselves off in so many ways. And so I finally have recognized that there's so many sides of who I am and I want to get to know all of them. How do you peel those layers off? Because you let us in so much, but does this one seem even more personal? Definitely. I think what it feels like is not only more personal, but more like the variety of it, you know, feels like something that's really exciting and interesting. Because I think you get to see and I get to learn, I get to see, I get to express these different pieces that maybe even sound sonically like a new expression. And I think a lot of people have been saying to me like, yo, I never expected that in the best way, like in an exciting way, in a way that feels like I never thought I'd hear you like that, but I totally can feel you in that. How do you keep the clutter out? You know how there's a certain sound people think they want and how do I deliver? And there's always been an Alicia Keys, you know what I'm saying? So when you hear Alicia Keys, you know right away, that's Alicia Keys. Somebody else, if it's a sloppy Carmen copy, she's trying to sound like Alicia Keys, you know what I'm saying? But how do you continue to make that sound where it's like, where it is, it's you. And we understand like, okay, that's Alicia Keys, but you got a catalog, you know what I'm saying? Is it challenging to yourself? You know, I never have made music from a place of a, from my head, you know, I've never gone in and be like, I've never calculated music. Like I'm going to now create and I have to make the Alicia thing. Like I don't, I don't even know how to do that. I don't even know what that means. In fact, I can't most of the time verbalize it. Even if someone, if I'm connecting with someone and they'll say like, well, what do you think, you know, well, what's, what do you think you're missing? Or what do you think you still, I don't even know how to, I don't know how to do that. All I know is how to be in the moment and feel and emotionally connect to whatever is real. You know what I mean? That's all I know how to do. So as long as I do that, it leads me to what you're talking about. I can't imagine what you even throw away, you know, because you got to think with, with an album like Alicia and all the music that we had, what happens when you just walking through the house or, you know, or the things that you, when you just rolling over and you can't remember what you had to, to the next morning, you know what I'm saying? How do you pick what becomes Alicia? It's definitely, I think, you know, it, it reveals itself. It really does. After a while, you start to see, um, the things that are really just remaining at the top, like certain things rise to the top and they keep rising to the top and they keep rising to the top. And then you're like, you know what? That's consistent. And this is right. This is it. Yeah. And you just know. So that's mostly it. But I definitely, I mean, certain, certain, certain bodies of music, I've made 80 songs, a hundred and something songs. And then you pick 12. But how do you get rid of, like, how do you tell your kid, this one, this kid is ugly. What's the process there? They understand. I was actually talking to Ty Dolla $ign the other day and I told him, I was like, man, you should really work with Alicia Keys. I was like, have you? He's like, well, we've recorded three songs. He's like, but we've never put them out. I'm like, what's going on? Well, she recorded 80 songs, right? She probably got one with Louie. What keeps you inspired to create music? Man, I actually feel more inspired than I've ever felt in my life right now. And I feel kind of, I think just being able to really stand clearly in my, in, in, in the meanness of me, you know, and really, I think that's, that comes with just being much more secure than I've ever been being much more free than I've ever been just being a grown ass human being who just don't give a ----. It really helps a lot. Are we paying attention? It really helps a lot. Do you feel like we're paying attention less? Because now I want great music, not knocking anything else, but sometimes I feel like, man, we're paying attention less. I think that, um, you know, first, I mean, I think, excuse me, our, I think our, um, concentration is definitely distracted. You know, we have so much that we can tune into and there's so much information and it's happening so quickly. We all want to watch this movie and we want to watch this Netflix show and we want to hear this music and we want to download that thing and we want to quick be the first one. And it's like, we're getting assaulted by information and so it is hard to actually tune into something for real because, um, it's so fast and there's so much of it. But I think the real, I think real recognize real. And I think when you really feel something, when you, when you really can connect, you really do connect and people want to. Alicia Keys in the neighborhood. Now there is a book as well. There's a book. So author, is this your first book? This is actually my second book. Really? Uh huh. My first one was poetry though. Okay. So what, so what's the difference between, of course, the poetry book, which is almost low hanging fruit. That's like a, yeah. That's like what you were talking about. All those songs that nobody ever heard. That's really poetry. You know what I mean? So what is More Myself? More Myself though is a journey. Was it scary to write? Scary? No, but deep. Yeah. Do you feel like you, like the layers, when you start peeling off the layers, you're like, Oh wow. It was like the best therapy ever. Cause I, cause you know how many times do you kind of sit back and remember a circumstance and then break it down for yourself? Like that's right. Cause then, you know, this, this, that's when I met this person and I was experiencing this in my life and I could see the, and actually when you look back on it, it's more clear. As to what you got from it or what you gained from it or what you needed to learn from it or whatever. So that's been really powerful and really exciting. I love it. I feel like it really does share in an honest way. Um, cause I think what we're all looking for is like how to actually be yourself. How do you actually be yourself? Oh my goodness. What did you learn about yourself? I learned that I definitely, um, I definitely always, one of the things I learned is that I love things in pretty low packages. And that's not like, that's not, I don't want to gif. We're not talking about a gif here. We talking about like relationships. We talking about circumstances or situations. I like things to be buttoned up. I like to put a bow around it. I like to put the final period on the end of the sentence. I heard that. But I realized that's not realistic and you can't make everything have the bow on it. Like some things are undone. Some things are just not meant to have a conclusion. Some things are maybe, and later you'll kind of get to it and figure it out. And sometimes you gotta just let space and time come in there. And so I've gotten much better at kind of just allowing things to be as they're going to be. Take the lesson as I might have it. And if it doesn't come all wrapped up with the final bow in the pretty package paper, because I perfectly said, oh here, now we can go on because I've wrapped that perfect thing up. Were you always a perfectionist? And sometimes it's good. And then sometimes when you say everything had to be in a bow, everything had to be this. Sometimes when you do arrive at it, you know what? You just gotta let it be. It is what it is. Some of the best art is uncompleted. It is what it is. I've always been a perfectionist. I've definitely always been a hustler. I've always been a really hard worker. I mean, I was raised by a single mom. It was her. She had nothing. She had nobody who was really there for us. And she had to go out and get it. And she had to raise a daughter in a mean city, hard streets. And she had to figure out how to get me from the beginning to the end somehow. She kept you busy. She definitely kept me busy. But because of that, I saw in her this kind of grind, this focus, this hard workingness. I mean, I don't know when she slept, when, how she did all the things she did. And you're like, whoa. The respect I have for her now as a mother is like crazy. I was about to say that when you become a parent, that's when you realize in the rear view mirror, like, oh my God, like, how did you do that? No, I honestly don't know. And so I think I picked up a lot of those traits from her and a lot of that fighting spirit, a lot of that really hard work. So to your point, have I always been a perfectionist? I think, yes, I definitely have always wanted excellence, but I've learned how to become more excellent and how to, how that wanting excellence for yourself is not something that you need, that you should feel bad about, you know, because I think sometimes you can believe it or not. But I learned how to like just grind. And so I've also unlearned that you have to also be good to yourself because I think that we all learn that. We learn like, if I don't sleep, I'm going to be the last to sleep and the first one up. And meanwhile, we're killing ourselves. You're killing yourself. For what? Like for a dollar? What are you killing yourself for? So, of course, we have to support our families. Do we have to, you know, make sure that we are healthy? But you got to arrive there too, though. Yeah, I mean, it took me forever. This is new information. I'm just sharing my new information. Yeah, man. Because hopefully, you know, you can also recall how much I learned that when I started to be better to myself and kind of take time, one day, 20 minutes, like whatever, to actually give a moment to myself, I became better and I progressed faster. So I actually got where I was going faster when I took time to make sure I was good. So Alicia Keys, you're coming back to the Grammys once again. OK. Hello. It's crazy when you sit down and you watch the Grammys. You know what I'm saying? Oh, it's the best place to do it, though. It's got to be wild to be the host. It is kind of crazy. For one, in your life, you watch it. Yes. And then you become an artist. You know, I mean, it's not validation, but it is validation. You want that. You know what I'm saying? I mean, you do want your fellow people and creative people to like, love you and appreciate what you do. Is it different being the host now, though, and coming back, knowing that everybody's not going to win? You know, I mean, one of the things I have to say, like in that host position, the thing that I really wanted last year and what I also want this year is, we have to celebrate the small victories. You know what I mean? And we get to celebrate each other. Like the fact that we get the opportunity to wake up every day and have the chance to create something that's special, that might touch somebody, that might mean something to somebody's life, that might actually lift them up when they need it the most. Whatever the case, let's them dance so that they can let go of the stress and the pressure that we all feel so much of. You already won. And so I think that there's an energy that I've wanted to bring, and I always want to bring, about celebrating each other. And not for tonight. It doesn't have to feel petty. It doesn't have to feel like everybody's competing. It doesn't have to feel like crazy nervous, because most people are just crazy nervous. You had a beautiful moment last year with you, Michelle Obama. Yes, so good. Like, I think that was serious. It still sits with me today, knowing that all those strong women stood on that stage. And like you said, it wasn't competing. It was, we're here together. What did that moment mean to you? It meant everything to me. Especially because us as women, we are so important to the culture and so important to society. And I think we're in a really important transition right now, where we're all recognizing how much women have to be at the table. We have to be a part of these boardrooms. We have to be at the front of the decision-making power. We are. We do it anyway. I mean, we control the pocketbooks in our households. We are as much present as the men are. And I think that that particular moment was really important just to show the solidarity, show the sisterhood, show that we can lift each other up. And that both men and women appreciate what a woman brings to the table. And that was a beautiful feeling. And so I think that's what that was. And that's what that represented, this unity in us all to recognize the strength of a woman. With Michelle Obama, Jennifer Lopez, Jada Pinkett Smith, Lady Gaga. If you could add one more to walk out with you this year, who would you add? You got to help me. Who would we add? Yeah, B. Come on. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, Beatrice I went to high school with. Beatrice. No, Beyonce. Not Beatrice, Beyonce. You don't know if that's what she said. No, she said Beyonce. She said B. That's what we made her say, Beyonce. Oh, OK. Are you right? No. And you know Beatrice? Oh, my God. All right. Well, you don't know Beatrice, do you? We want Beyonce. I would love Beatrice to walk up and be like, who the hell is that? That'd be good. That'd be really good. Who the hell is that walking up? And they got a tribute, of course, to Prince this year. And also tributes to Nipsey Hussle. Nipsey. I'm really excited about seeing that. I think that Nipsey represented so much and represents so much. And just going too soon, for sure. But to be able to have that moment of just uplifting and just reminding us all that we have a piece of what he represents and stands for inside of us so that we can carry that energy forward feels good. With 29 nominations and taking home 15 Grammys, what do you say to the Lizzo's of the world? They got their first nomination. Man, first of all, I very, very much am excited for Lizzo. I feel like that's one thing about music that I appreciate the most, when we're able to see ourselves in all of our glory. Because I think sometimes we get confused that we're all supposed to look a certain way or be a certain size or have a certain... And that's fake. That's real, real fake. And so I love when the truth and honesty and what she brings breaks through, because we really need to feel that. And we need to remember that the more unique we are, the more special, you know what I mean? And at one point, I'm pretty sure you looked at other artists where you were like, wow, that person. And now people, of course, for years, they look at Alicia Keys. And I saw what you did with Billie Eilish. Like that right there, when you can grab somebody that is so young in the game and extremely talented. And when y'all did Ocean Eyes, how did that come? How did that come together? She understood that moment. Man, she was looking at me the whole time. She was like, I can't believe I'm here. And I remember having a moment like that, too. I got moments. Right. To this day, I have these moments where I'm like, what am I doing here? And I thank you for that. You know what I'm saying? It was just a radio interview. How did I make it to big boy? Hard work. It was hard work. You know what I'm saying? And then you always kept grinding because the first three times we turned you down, you never was like, you know what I'm saying? I let her in. And you did it. You know, Alicia Keys, our time is we got to wrap up with you, my love. But that means we would do it again. Of course. And the album drops on March 20th. The book is on the 31st, which is a beautiful day for me. My birth month. Now, you know, it's a special day. That's the day my mom passed. So those dates always. So when I saw the date, I was like, that's a beautiful date. Wow. That's a very beautiful day. But thank you for coming in today. I love y'all. And when we sit down again, I know we, man, we wanted so much time. Yeah, I know, we need three hours, three hours next time. OK, well, tell the people. Make time for us, please. Tell the people that. Tell the people that we had songs for her to sing. Yeah, we got a whole list. We got games to play. I'm ready for some games. Yeah. All righty. Name seven Alicia Keys albums in seven seconds. Your time begins now. One, two, three, four, five, six, and seven. Wow. You got it. There it is. Alicia Keys in the neighborhood, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Queen, for coming into the neighborhood, man. Big Boy's Neighborhood.