Alicia Keys is Nuts

In a recent interview with Blender Magazine, Alicia Keys blew a fuse. According to Blender, Keys claims:

“‘Gangsta rap’ was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. ‘Gangsta rap’ didn’t exist.” She says that the rivalry between slain artists Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. was fueled “by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing.”

Uh huh. What's Alicia been smoking lately, and has she been sharing it with Britney Spears?

First of all, the childish mindset behind this is simply appalling. Such beliefs are called 'magical thinking' and they're the mark of an immature mind. This isn't simply someone's well-reasoned opinion: It is, in musical terminology, a few keys short of a piano.

Secondly, I would like to make the observation that if Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. were 'great black leaders', then the black community needs some higher standards. They were no more 'leaders' than Michael Vick was. Sadly, even though they weren't leaders, all those men were idealized by many black people.

For example, in November of 2007, Vick was named the favorite NFL star among the black youth of America. Others idealize Shakur and B.I.G. even though those men were violent thugs who died from making their own choices in life: If you go looking for trouble, you'll find it.

In contrast, these guys make Martin Luther King look like a saint. Although MLK plagiarized and cheated on his wife repeatedly, at least he preached peace and unity and overall he brought positive changes to the black community.

But Alicia's comments bring me back to something I mourned in another post on MLK Day this year:

Is Booker T. Washington so far removed from our lowered standards that he seems like an almost fictional character?

What of George Washington Carver, who made contributions to not simply a small segment of society but to society as a whole, while serving as an upstanding role model? Is he also to be disregarded because he is simply 'old school' and our modern work ethic (or lack of it) cannot come close to his standards?My friend Rosie (who's black) agrees with me: She doesn't get it either. And there are many intelligent, educated black people who would fall in step with Rosie. But why don't more black people make better choices for their role models?

Finally, the deaths of Shakur and B.I.G. occurred during the Clinton administration. If Alicia truly believes this garbage, are we to assume she's voting Republican this year?