“Alicia Keys: Sounds Off On Men, Love & Fame” 

Alicia Keys, photographed for the cover of Ebony magazine by Vandell Cobb in late 2003. The issue was dated January 2004.

On a bright, crisp day in New York City, Ebony’s Lynn Norment sat down with Alicia to delve into her heart and soul and ask her thoughts on love, fame and men, among other topics. Just who is Alicia Keys? “I would say that I’m a simple person,” she says, relaxing on the sun-drenched terrace of the penthouse suite atop a hip, New York hotel. “I’m a very caring person. I’m really not impressed with external, super facial things, materialistic things. I definitely would prefer to sit somewhere like this. Just open on the beach, on a bench with a really good friend, and talk rather than go to the best, the hottest party or club—any day.”

There is no confusion about who she is: “I grew up in New York, and thank God, I never had to go through that in regards to ‘you’re not Black enough, you’re not White enough,’ the whole kind of White/Black-mixture thing. I never had to go through that. I went through prejudices and all, surely. But I never had to battle with those two parts of me. I was with people who were Indian and Spanish, people who were Italian. In New York, it’s like anything goes. New York is so diverse and there are so many different types of people. People couldn’t care less what you are. They really don’t care. I think that’s the reason I don’t have any real issues. I never had to deal with those kinds of things. I’m blessed because of that.”

But that doesn’t mean she never experienced racial discrimination: “One time I was actually in Ohio and I was young and I got my first taste of that kind of racial thing. It was like, ‘I’m ready to go. I don’t like it here.’ I was shunned for being different. I was pretty young and I remember that vividly. I felt horrible; it makes you feel terrible. It was like, ‘What’s wrong with me?’”

Alicia touches on the release of her sophomore album, The Diary of Alicia Keys: “I love my own music. If I didn’t love it, I would not record it… It’s from my life and my experiences. It’s the same me, but it’s different because of how much I’ve learned and how much I’ve grown vocally, and my musicianship definitely has grown. It’s only natural for it to be a step higher. This is just who I am and I’m happy that this is what people loved and accepted me for,” she says of her music. “I would hate to make music and people love me for something that isn’t me. Then I would have to keep doing that kind of thing, even though I really hated it. It would be like living a lie. But this [my music] is always me and its always the truth.”