WEBVTT - Alicia Keys 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:15.080 Pushkin. Alicia Keys started her career as a soulful, piano 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.280 playing singer songwriter a lot like a young Carol King, 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:20.760 But in the twenty years since, we've seen her grow 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.919 into one of the world's biggest pop stars, and, like 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:27.159 at the Kobe Memorial recently, someone the country turns to 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:31.720 when we need a unifying voice. Reading Alicia's newly released 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:35.639 memoir More Myself, you understand right away how someone's so 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:39.680 young carries so much wisdom. Raised by a loving single 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:41.479 mother in the middle of New York City in the 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.400 eighties and nineties, she was bound or grew up smart 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:47.279 and grew up fast, or maybe not make it at all. 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.040 Alicia spoke with Malcolm Gladwell by Zoom recently about her 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:54.600 childhood navigating the dangerous city, about writing her book and 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:57.840 how it informed her new music, and shared some astonishing 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:00.760 stories about some of the amazing people she's crossed paths 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:07.720 with over her career. This is broken record liner notes 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:15.920 for the digital age. I'm justin Richmond. Here's Malcolm Gladwell 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.160 with Alicia Keys. You wrote this book at the same 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:23.640 time that you were doing your latest album, you know, 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:27.160 I mean, I started to write the book before the 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:31.200 latest album, for sure, But they definitely have synergies they 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:35.000 and I feel that their companion pieces they belonged together. 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.760 Was it strange to work on a book at the 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:41.080 same time as music or it was the same process 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.320 for you? Well, no, it's not the same process at all. 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:51.760 It's totally foreign, completely brand new, much much more in 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.080 depth and depth. You know. Obviously the book writing process 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:57.720 and the length of time that it takes it was 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:02.360 much longer and much more patients required to really follow 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.440 through with everything and find the through lines and really 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:07.880 be clear about the intention and the meaning and that 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:11.359 you know that it makes sense the whole way through it, 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:15.000 that it really brings you there. But emotionally, I think 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.600 it was similar in the sense of, you know, just 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:22.120 I think with music you also do have to find 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:25.760 the truth in what you're trying to convey, and you're 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:27.839 just doing it in a much more concise way, which 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.480 can also be harder because you don't have the length 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:35.120 to deeply explain what you're truly trying to say. So 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:38.720 and in those ways, they both have their challenges. But 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.400 obviously music is more like a second skin for me 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:44.919 than book writing, So in that way, it was totally different. 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:48.160 But I think what was good about both recording the 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:53.720 music and writing this book at similar times is that 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:58.880 I was asking myself too similar questions. And the question 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.839 that I was asking myself and I was understanding more 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:06.240 than ever before, was this question about identity and who 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:10.240 actually am I? And who who of who I am? 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.720 Who is who I've been told to be? And who 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:19.400 is who I'm actually And that became a theme that 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:22.799 was both I was deeply able to search through the 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:26.200 book writing process from looking you know, from my very 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:30.720 beginning stages to now, and then I was also able 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:34.640 to search from this music sonic lyrical process. So I 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:36.960 think it was it was really cool for that because 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:40.000 although it was the same question, it was two different 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:44.120 expressions of the question. So that made it cool. Will 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:46.400 you tell a story about how Swiss came to you 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:49.040 and says how how can we never talk about big Italian? 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:53.080 Which I so an inspiration. I love that because we 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:55.680 always have to pick a side, right, you know. I 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:00.160 have to say that I've always been fortunate because as 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:01.920 I grew up in New York City, you know, the 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.640 heart of the city right there, melting pot for real, 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:08.840 there was never a moment that I wasn't seeing people 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:11.600 of all kinds of descents and all kinds of beliefs 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:15.280 and religions and places and styles and energies. And I 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:18.200 think that really made a difference for me. I didn't 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:20.840 feel like I had to pick a side, because I 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:22.960 think I think if I grew up in a smaller 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.279 town or I don't know, I think it was just circumstance, 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:31.600 and you know, just how my particular childhood was. I 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:35.080 never felt like that. I definitely felt I understood there 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:37.760 were different sides, but I didn't feel like I had 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.919 to pick one, you know. And but I also didn't 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:43.159 realize think what his question when he asked, when he 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:46.279 said that it was, I was very defensive. Were you 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.599 talking about like everybody knows that? And the more people 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:51.800 that I started to encounter that actually didn't know that 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:55.800 started to prove him right. And and I guess so 0:04:55.880 --> 0:05:00.040 in regards to picking sides, maybe we I picked a 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.600 side in a way. I didn't think I was picking 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:05.159 a side. I didn't feel like I needed to pick 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:07.000 a side. I didn't realize I was picking a side. 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:09.240 But I think in some ways perhaps I did. So 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:11.719 that was what was really interesting about it. It just 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.120 kind of he put myself. He threw me in front 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:17.400 of the mirror, and I was like, oh, maybe. So 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.240 it's so good about people who you who love you 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:23.440 and who you love like how they can provoke you 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:26.719 to think about things that you would never there wouldn't 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:29.679 have been a reason to think about when he asked 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:31.080 you that we said that to you, was that the 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:33.320 beginning of the process of the new album? Were you 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:36.280 already immersed in it when we said that too, I 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:39.560 was already writing it. I think that it really gave 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.800 it a perspective that I did not have prior, and 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:47.400 I started to really think about it. Turned it gave 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:52.520 me the questioning of myself to not only think about race, 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.240 or to think about religion, or to think about color, 0:05:55.720 --> 0:06:00.240 but to go even deeper and think about emotions. Because 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:02.719 for me, that's my biggest trouble I find, or my 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.400 biggest challenge, or my biggest lesson or my biggest opportunity, 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:08.960 or whatever you want to call it, is I find 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.400 that I it's been very difficult for me to access 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:15.960 my emotions, and so I finally come to a place 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:20.159 where I can acknowledge the myriad of emotions that make 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:24.240 us all up who we are. And you know, because 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:28.159 the world is so structured, and you know, we kind 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.880 of have been so taught to be in control of 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:36.440 our everything, you know that we don't think we're not 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.440 encouraged to kind of see these darker or deeper or 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:44.480 bluer or scarier or more vulnerable parts that are inside 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:48.360 of us, that are really a healthy part of why 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:50.280 you are who you are. But if you don't know 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.320 that side, how can you really know yourself? And so 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.919 that's that's what it started to send me down that 0:06:57.080 --> 0:07:01.320 rugget hole and away I went. I want to go 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:03.960 back to what it meant to grow up in the 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:06.960 eighties and nineties in New York. Um, before I get there, 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:10.400 I want to touch on this question of racial identity again, 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.720 because you make that comment about your mom that she's 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:18.880 the blackest white woman you've ever known. So it's almost 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.160 as if, like, so, you have a white mother and 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:23.480 a black father, but you have a kind of black 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:26.320 white mother and a black father. Is that fair? That's 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:29.280 what you're saying, right, Yeah, I mean she totally is. 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:31.880 I mean, if you when you meet my mother or 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:34.720 when you ever spend time at my mother, you can definitely, 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:38.040 you know, she she has a certain spirit and she 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.840 has a certain energy that that definitely, you know, anybody 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.360 would say she is one of the blackest white people 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:48.000 that you have you have ever met um, And she's definitely, 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.640 you know, I think We've always had such a really diverse, 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:56.080 interesting group of aunties and friends and and you know, 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:00.560 her colleagues and friends and my friends and and sister 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:03.200 friends and all the people that you know, I've been 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:05.800 able to attract and just have been a part of 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:08.640 my life that have really created such a, like I said, 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:13.480 a really robust, dynamic experience in regards to what people 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:18.960 look like, what people believe, feel, dance like, eat, you know, 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:22.920 live the whole thing. And so it definitely painted a 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:26.920 colorful picture for me, and I really appreciate that. What 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:30.240 would your mom say if if your mom was on 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:33.320 this call and I said to her, your daughter describes 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:36.320 you as the blackest white woman, what would she say? 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:40.680 I think She's like, yeah, I think she right. I 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:45.360 think that. So what's here? They're painted picture of growing 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:47.800 up with your mom and Behattan Plaza. Prist of all, 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:52.320 what your mom is very is really into music, the 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:55.840 world you grew up with his intensity musical. What's she playing? 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.440 You're you're seven years old? What's your mom playing? Um? 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:03.760 I mean I can remember correctly. She's playing Bobby Caldwell, 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:08.360 she's playing John Coltrane, she's playing La Fitzgerald. She's playing 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:13.120 Marvin Gaye, she's playing roberta Flat, She's playing Areta Franklin, 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:16.920 she's playing Nina Simone, she's playing you know, all these 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:21.680 really epic Stevie Wonder, She's playing all the greatest of 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.040 the greats are coming through those speakers and those and 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.360 those those record players, because that's what it was, a 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.720 record player, and she had all the albums on all 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:38.160 the shelves, and it was just the soundtrack was so beautiful. Man. Yeah. Yeah, 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:41.679 And you're saying the book that you from the age 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:43.480 of four you knew you were you were going to 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.760 be a singer. I mean, but at the age of 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:49.880 four us when I fell in love. I was bitten 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:54.360 and smitten. I think that that's when I really fell 0:09:54.400 --> 0:10:03.600 in love with the possibility. Because my my little sweet 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.880 teacher at the time, as Hazel, who was kind of 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:12.840 the music teacher at my kindergarten. She always so passionate 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:16.959 and so lively, and she always wanted to expose us 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:20.360 to different sounds and places and performances, and so our 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.200 little selves were always going somewhere and singing some little 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:28.240 songs somewhere. But she also did these plays, and those 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:31.640 plays were the first opportunity that I had with kind 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:34.679 of trying out to sing in front of people. And 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:37.840 it was so scary and I was so so terrified, 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:39.880 which you know, it's so terrifying to sing in front 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:42.040 of people you know, much less in front of people 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.480 you don't know as much easier, but in front of 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:48.120 people you know, it's super terrifying. But I tried and 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:50.080 I sang. We were doing the Wizard of Oz and 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.360 I sang Somewhere of the Rainbow. And I had to 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:54.240 learn it, and I had to learn all the words, 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:56.160 and I had to learn the melodies and sing it. 0:10:56.480 --> 0:11:01.360 And when I did, I felt something. And that was 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:03.920 the moment that I just I didn't feel scared, I 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.320 felt good. And that was the moment that filled me 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.280 up in that way and started that journey. So I 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:13.200 didn't exactly know it's gonna be a singer at that second, 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:15.920 I don't think, but I did know that I felt 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:18.720 something that I wanted to feel again. It found your 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:23.320 world at that moment. Yeah, there's a couple of moments 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:24.920 that I wish you'd did more of it. When you 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:29.960 start talking about your relationship to to to pianos and 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:32.480 to a to the piano. If you're keep talking about that, 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:35.640 I thought that was So is there something can you 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.720 remember the first time as a child that you understood 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:40.679 what a piano was and what it could do and 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:44.360 what you felt at that moment? Well, I feel like 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:46.960 pianos have always been around me. My grandmother on my 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:50.520 mother's side always played piano. She was actually, you know, 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:54.320 a singer and a writer herself. And then you know, 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:57.960 I think got married quite early, so my grandfather, you know, 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.640 call it right out of college nineteen plenty, whatever that is, 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:04.160 and then right away they started having children, ended up 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:06.840 having nine children altogether. And let me tell you, I 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:09.600 have two and I'm trying to figure out how to 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:13.000 get some space. So I don't know how she would 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:16.880 have nine and like be able to do anything besides 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:20.160 everything that was needed for that, you know. So I 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:22.600 think at that point, you know, her dream was deferred. 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:26.720 And so but ever since a little girl going to 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.240 visit my family there there was always a piano there. 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:32.840 There was always a piano at my other grandmother's house too. 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.600 My father's mother, my Nanna's house, she always had a piano, 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.240 and I think her kids at one time took piano 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:41.800 and didn't really stick with it, but it always was 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:45.600 in the house. So there was always a piano fortunately somewhere. 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:47.720 So I think from a very young age, I definitely 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:50.040 knew exactly what it was. I knew what it was 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:52.560 meant to do, and I was very attracted to it 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:55.360 from a very early age. I would, you know, in 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:58.080 New York, I would pass by the Segway shop and 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:01.760 they all those pianos in the way, and I was fascinated. 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:04.760 I was. I was almost just drawn like a like 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:08.560 a magnetic force towards it, and I would stick my 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:10.400 nose to the window and just look at it. I 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:12.439 would want to play it. I would want to hear them. 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:14.920 They look so beautiful, they're like art. And so I 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:19.360 was very very enamored with it. And and then you know, 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:21.520 but we never had a piano because that's like, first 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:24.480 of all, our apartment was tiny, and you can't fit 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:27.600 something like that into our place. And and it wasn't 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:31.640 even really a consideration or a thought until the opportunity 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:35.080 arose that we actually were given a piano, and that 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:40.040 was another thing that changed everything. So I once that 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:42.040 happened and we actually had the opportunity for me to 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:45.280 play one consistently, that's when I started asking if there 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:48.160 was a way I could learn, and and it felt 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:52.720 like in that way, I was just drawn to it. 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:55.720 I can't explain it except anything like that. It wasn't 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:59.760 someone wasn't always necessarily playing around me and said, hey, 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:02.000 Lee should up on my lap and learn. The wasn't 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:05.040 necessarily that where I didn't have a big like church 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:07.640 experience where a lot of people learn in church and 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:09.600 kind of jump in and start to learn there and 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:11.760 that's how they played. That wasn't my experience either. But 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.880 it just so happened that this fascination and the love 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:17.640 and the draw and the power was always there. And 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:20.800 then when it finally revealed itself, it was like again 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.960 that same family where it's like it found me, how 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:28.520 old were you when your family got that piano? And 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.160 now I started playing and I started to take lessons 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.720 at seven, So I was right. I was right about 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:39.320 that age. Yeah, and it was just beat up. Oh yeah, 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:41.960 it was a you know, a hand me down piano, 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:44.360 which was the most beautiful thing I ever saw in 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:48.080 my life. I couldn't have been more excited or more grateful. 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:53.680 It was this kind of beat up brown wooden, upright 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.800 old player piano. So it had the doors in the 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.160 front that was slide open where the twenties or the thirties, 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.800 and whatever saloon it was in or wherever it came from, 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:07.560 the playing paper would have been inside of it. And 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:10.320 it was in the corner and played for all the 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:12.760 people in there, and they probably were dancing to it, 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:15.120 and a lot of times it probably wasn't played that 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.280 often from someone's fingers, or maybe it was, who knows. 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.680 But it found its way to my living room and 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.520 became the divider between my little parts of the living 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:28.160 room that was my little bedroom and the actual part 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:29.720 that me and my mother used to sit in and 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.920 watch TV. And it was the wall and there was 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:37.000 where please tell me you still have that piano, believe 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:41.640 it or not, I don't. I know, I didn't, you know. 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:46.760 Before anything started to take off or happened, I was 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:50.040 able to get another piano I'm trying to think of 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:52.760 when I'm actually trying to think of when the cross happens. 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:57.840 I think I got there's a piano that was a 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:00.560 part of the first deal I had, and it was 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:04.520 a far superior piano in my little brown one, and 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:07.280 I would and at that time, I didn't know what 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.000 success was, and I didn't know about ever make it, 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:11.960 and I had no idea. I was just like, WHOA, 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.480 this is a beautiful piano. And I, in my spirit 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:17.240 and my mother we said, well, who should we give 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:19.800 the other piano too, so that someone else can learn 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:22.080 and someone else can have a beautiful experience. And so 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:24.080 that was all we've been thinking that. We weren't thinking, I, oh, 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:26.240 we better hold this because this would literally be like 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:31.320 the most museum worthy piano ever. We never we never 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:34.560 thought about it. Somewhere out there, someone's got that piano, 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:38.080 I think, and if they knew it was yours, you know, 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:41.080 it's with a million dollars. When we come back more 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:48.400 from Alicia Keys. We're back with more from Alicia Keys. 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.960 Tell me about Manhattan Plaza. I was, I you know, 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:53.880 I've been in New York for twenty years. I walked 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:57.520 by Manhattan Plaza a million times. I had no idea. 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:00.520 First of all, no idea took that's where. But I 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.440 had no idea that it was this kind of world 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:06.920 under itself of all of these creative types from Broadway. 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:10.160 And so just describe for its Manhattan Plaza for those 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:14.000 who don't know New York. So Manhattan Plaza is like 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:20.679 a once in a lifetime creation. Basically it was built 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:26.119 to support artists and creatives in that area because it's 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:29.640 on forty second Street between Ninth and tenth, and it's 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.760 two twin towers and one is on Tenth Avenue, one 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:36.200 is on Ninth Avenue. And it was an experiment that 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:39.359 the city did at a certain point to try to 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:45.520 create an affordable living space for people who were creatives. Obviously, 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.520 this New York City is all about creative people and 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:52.199 that industry, in the entertainment industry. And so what they 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:56.600 did was they created a system that you would pay 0:17:56.800 --> 0:18:00.320 only a portion of what you made that month. So 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.960 you know, as we know, artists have very fluctuating incomes. 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:06.800 It's not always uh, you know, you don't get a 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:11.040 check every week. You know, you don't have a retirement plan. Um, 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:14.560 it's very very unstable, and sometimes you're working a lot, 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:17.359 sometimes you're working not at all. And so depending on 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:19.880 whatever was happening for you that month, you would pay 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:22.240 a portion of what you made. And I remember my 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:25.720 mother told me that her her rent was about seventy 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:30.760 five dollars, So that was you know, at that beginning time. 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.040 And and and so what they created was a really 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:38.600 special place that also had had like a playground for kids. 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:41.679 So in between the buildings there were these special things. 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:44.760 And so in a lot of ways you could live 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:47.480 in that building and kind of it was its own world, 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.920 unto itself, and everybody who was in that building knew 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.720 each other, and all the kids kind of played together, 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:57.480 and you know, they're sometimes you know, you even me 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:01.480 discovering who lived in that building, I'm like, wow, Terence Howard, 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:05.440 Larry David Sami Pel Jackson. You didn't see him back 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:08.440 in the day. I don't recall seeing Sam Jackson, but 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.080 I would have remembered if you had. I think I would, 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:14.000 But I could have been so young that you know, 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:16.200 it just doesn't dawn on you like that, you know, 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.359 But I feel like I would have known if I 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:21.920 if I saw him. But you know, he was he 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:26.040 was also in that building, you know for a time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:28.240 it's crazy. It's like it's not only in New York 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:33.920 kind of thing. There's don't exist anywhere else. But seriously, seriously, 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:38.200 but it's plumped in the middle of Times Square in 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:40.480 the eighties and nineties and Times Square in the eighties 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:45.120 and nineties. You know, is that the world's most pleasant place? 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:48.080 Were you aware of that fact that it was sort 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.439 of the world outside Manhattan Plaza was a little scary 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:53.639 or just did you just not did that not register 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.200 to you when you were a kid. I knew very 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:59.119 clearly if you you know, to go to school in 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:02.159 order to come back from school, in order to you know, 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:04.320 if there was any activity that I was doing, because 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:06.920 my mother was big on that. You know, I'm my 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:12.119 mother's a single mother in a real mean city with 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:16.080 a daughter, and so she was definitely focused on making 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:18.760 sure that I had places to go in places to be, 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:21.440 because she knew if I didn't, then I would I 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:23.720 would find places to go in places to be. So 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:27.919 every time I walked out on the street. Even one 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:31.399 of my earliest recollections early in the book that I 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:34.840 Love a Lot is the first time that I asked her, 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:38.159 I asked her who were the women on the streets 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:41.879 who in the winter barely had any clothes on? And she, 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:45.200 you know, probably struggled trying to answer that question for 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:48.800 whatever I was six year old or whatever that was. So, 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:51.159 you know, a lot of that, a lot of that 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:56.080 energy of Hell's Kitchen, which literally was as it sounds. 0:20:56.400 --> 0:21:00.719 That name was perfect for how it looked and how 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:04.760 it sounded and how it was. And so I was 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:08.040 very familiar with the life outside of that, which was 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:10.800 full of a lot of a lot of pimps, a 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:17.080 lot of prostitutes, a lot of x orated stores and theaters, um, 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:20.800 a lot of heroin addicts, drug addicts. UM. It was 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:26.520 definitely full of the New York scene. So so I 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:28.560 was very aware of what that was, and I think 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:34.240 it actually informed my um a lot of my character. 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:38.080 UM and you and I noticed as I reflect back, 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:44.400 that I've always been very you know, my exterior has 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:47.960 always had to be well in place, and that is 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:49.840 a lot because of you know, those streets that I 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:53.159 grew up on. Yeah, you sound like you you had 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:56.240 a pretty wild am I right, I was reading between 0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:57.639 the lines in your book I was like, how wild 0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:00.760 was Alicia when she was in when she was a teenager. 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:04.119 What I wanted was your mom. I wanted you to 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:06.840 I wanted your mom the way in and say, tell 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:08.880 me the real story, what was going on when you're 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:16.240 fifteen years old? I definitely, I was definitely. I just knew. 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:18.600 I knew it all like all fifteen year olds to 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:22.720 I just I knew I was grown too, because I 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:27.160 had to be very independent from a very very young age. 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:29.119 You know, my mother needed me to be able to 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:30.800 get around the city. She needed me to be able 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:33.000 to get to where I was going get to school. 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:35.480 If I had a piano class or a dance class, 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:37.440 I needed to get there. I need to get back home, 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:40.600 you know. And so I was definitely always on the 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:42.720 streets and I was always able to kind of meet 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:44.639 up with my friends or go where I wanted to go. 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:47.480 In essence, she was definitely on me, for sure, and 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:50.600 she was wild. So you did not want to upset 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:53.119