Alicia Keys, photographed performing during “The Pusher's Ball” to benefit the Keep A Child Alive charity at The Angel Orensanz Foundation Center for the Arts in New York City on December 1, 2004.

On World AIDS Day (December 1st) Empire Entertainment produced a star-studded event to help raise funds for Keep a Child Alive, a relatively new charitable organization that directly provides life-saving anti-retroviral drugs to children with HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The cocktail party and concert event was named the "Pusher's Ball" based on the foundation's efforts to get people to 'push' these life saving drugs to children in Africa. The event was the brainchild of Keep a Child Alive Founder and longtime AIDS activist Leigh Blake. It served to raise funds and honor some remarkable people doing work in the AIDS community. Among those honored were John Demsey, the President of M.A.C. Cosmetics and Chairman of the M.A.C. AIDS Fund; Anneliese Estrada, Creative Director of The Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA) the oldest and one of the largest funders of HIV/AIDS service and education programs in the US; Stephen Lewis, the U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa; and Dr. Shaffiq Essajee, the Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at NYU School of Medicine, for their courageous work in providing treatment and AIDS research.

The event featured a lineup of performers. Among them were Keep a Child Alive spokesperson Alicia Keys, and Lenny Kravitz who performed "Let Love Rule" and "Higher Ground," Anthony Hamilton who performed "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone," Lou Reed who dueted with Alicia in a rare performance for "Satellite of Love," Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds who dueted with Alicia on John Lennon's "Imagine," Angélique Kidjo who performed "Afrique," and "Africa is the Center of the World" with rapper Common and legendary vibraphone player Roy Ayers. The event also featured a solo performance by rising star and 13-year-old musical prodigy Karina Pasian. Other celebrity guests and presenters included Spike Lee, Russell Simmons, Iman, Run DMC, Tyson Beckford, Mos Def, Gloria Rubin, Alan Cumming, Don Cheadle, Lil Kim, and Clive Davis among others.

Empire Entertainment served as event producer and were responsible for all elements including talent coordination in collaboration with J Records. The event was generously sponsored by AOL Music and M.A.C. Cosmetics. 

The entire event was backed by the innovative “Become A Drug Dealer” KCA campaign designed by advertising agency Fallon New York. The campaign featured tee shirts, packaged in offical police evidence bags, printed with the text “drug dealer.” Proceeds from the purchase of the shirts went to buying the necessary drugs for children in Africa with HIV/AIDS. Official advertising featured figures like Alicia Keys, Lil’ Kim, Tyson Beckford, Naomi Campbell and Alan Cummings wearing the dealer shirts.