Alicia Keys joins Ebro Darden on R&B Now Radio on Apple Music 1 to discuss her new double-album ‘KEYS’. She tells Ebro that the album is “more special than anything I’ve ever done before”, and shares that she’s “never felt better”. She also discusses collaborating with Raphael Saadiq, Swae Lee, Lil Wayne, Khalid, and Pusha T (who she says is in her top five).
Alicia Keys Tells Apple Music That She Has “A Crazy Drive”& That ‘KEYS’ Is More Special Than Anything She’s Done Before…
I’m definitely an animal and I definitely have a crazy drive inside of me. I really do. And I have to fulfill my drive. If I’m called to do it, I have to fulfill it. Do I still feel nervous? I feel excited. I feel more excited that I get to share something that I believe is more special than anything I’ve done before. And every time I enter the space, I want to share what I believe is more special than anything I’ve done before. And so that’s an excitement, that’s an adrenaline. It’s like, “Oh wait until hear. This is going to be crazy. They’re Going to feel it.” That’s just how I feel.
Alicia Keys Tells Apple Music About Collaborating With Raphael Saadiq…
I always wanted to work with Raphael Saadiq my whole life. Never worked together before. Called him, was like, “Man, we should rock.” And he was like, “You’re never going to believe this. I’ve been playing only piano.” I was like, “What?” Now you know he played bass, he played guitar. “I’ve been only playing piano. Something has been calling me to the piano.” I was like, “Okay. Well, come on.” And it literally was like, just fireworks, energy, amazing vibes.
Alicia Keys Tells Apple Music About Being a Pusha T Fan and Getting To Collaborate With Him…
Pusha T blessed me with a verse. I happen to be a very big Pusha T fan. I personally think that he’s definitely, if we going to talk top five, he’s in my top five. You know what I mean? That voice and just that way that his perspective and the sound of the swag on his tonsils. The whole thing is all up in there.
Alicia Keys Tells Apple Music Ella Fitzgerald Has The Greatest Voice of All Time…
Ella Fitzgerald has the greatest voice of all time. I wish I could sing a fraction of how she can control that power of that voice.
Alicia Keys Tells Apple Music About Feeling Confident To Be Fully Herself…
I just feel a confidence to be who I am like I never felt before. I just don’t have a desire to be anybody else but me. I think there were times before where I wanted to be what I wasn’t. And again, just because mostly because you’re exploring, mostly because you’re growing. You don’t know what’s on the other side of that wall. So you’re like, “Oh what’s on the other side of the wall?” So you go look. You start to understand that there’s different worlds that you can access when you start to play with different sonics. So I think that you do, and you start to say, “Huh. Well, I want to be in that world, too. And I want to be in that world. And I’m going to be in that world.” So you do look for these ways that you can be in these other worlds. But I just have found that coming back home to me, and really just reveling in my me, and being on my ultimate within my me, ain’t nothing felt better. I’ve never felt better.
Alicia Keys Tells Apple Music About Collaborating With Swae Lee…
Yes, actually, Swizz was the one that put me on Swae with Mike. I was like, oh! Because I actually always wanted to connect with Swae because I just think that he has a personality in his music that’s fresh. He has a thing. And his spirit is… It’s so bright. His energy is crazy bright. When you meet people that are special, you know that they’re special right away. And he has that energy. He has that energy, and it’s so carefree. It’s super, just fluid. And he was just up in there going… I was over there watching him like, okay. You’re really in your zone. And I love that. There’s a freedom there that I think is something that I learn a lot from. I love collaborating because I realise how much I learn from people. And there’s a certain freedom I feel in the creation of music that certain people have. Swae’s one of them. Swizz is one of them, too. He creates like this, too. It’s very you pull it from the ethers, and you just go with what comes down. Me, I’m more crafty. I’m a little bit more like I want to put the word, and I wanted to match the other meaning. And I’m a little more of a scientist about my lyrics, but I think that there’s a flow about lyrics that are really beautiful. And so picking up some pieces of that and adding them to my more scientific vibe is great. And so that’s how it went. It went like that. We were in the Bahamas, it was a good vibe, and it came through and the LALA and bang, the LALA.
Alicia Keys Tells Apple Music About Collaborating With Lil Wayne For The First Time…
You know that’s my first Wayne verse? Ain’t that amazing? Some things come when they supposed to come. I think Wayne is phenomenal, man. I just think that he’s, his staying power is crazy, not to be underestimated, not one bit would it take to do verse after verse after verse after verse that’s fresh. And I feel like people forget. To be continuously fresh is just like you talking about me in that way, in the sense of like, everything’s good, right? Because you know how hard it is to be continuously fresh.That means you putting in work. Yeah, to make it look easy.
Alicia Keys Tells Apple Music About Khalid…
Khalid is one of the real ones. I really-… I really, really deal with him for real, because I’ll tell you what, we know, there’s a bunch of fakies and phonies. But he is the real deal. He call, he says, I’m coming, he’s coming. It’s no jokes. It’s no games.
Alicia Keys Tells Apple Music About ‘Billions’…
I love ‘Billions’ so much. ‘Billions’ is actually describing the discomfort of love. When you actually love something so much that you are desperate for it to not leave and sometimes that can drive you crazy. This is the reassurance that you know that you are one in a billion. They are one in a billion. And what you have is one in a billion. So, through the insecurities that sometimes come with any relationship just because you love it so much you want it to be okay, you’re reminded that you’re the billions. You’re one in a billion. And it’s not even a big enough number. A trillion, gazillion.
Alicia Keys Tells Apple Music About “Old Memories”…
I love this song so much because it has that tempo. See, my secret tempo is 3/4. That’s my secret tempo. Any time I drop a 3/4 record it works. So, this is one of those to me and I feel like the lyrics and the pen and the concept basically of old memories, they don’t fade away. They show up before you leave and disappear when you wish they’d stay. No heart is immune, no secret is kept. They only get stronger with age. Old memories, they don’t fade away. And it goes to old love songs, old photographs and it’s this swag of those pieces of memories, memorabilia that you have in your house, when you play a record you can’t get that person out of your head, when you pass that picture you can’t believe that memory is like, you have something so vivid. And I feel like it’s so powerful, especially for right now because we are in this time now during the holidays when you’re remembering the people that you lost. You’re realiaing how precious every moment is. Every day is like we’re losing somebody. You know what I mean? So, those memories that we create in those special moments with the people we love, we have to hold onto it and it’s super powerful.
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