There are only three tracks on which you could safely guess that she is giving any insight into her world. Still, this is an Alicia Keys record, and it wouldn’t be wrong to expect her to devote time to herself. It helps to take this into consideration early on, so that it’s not entirely confusing when Keys starts singing from the perspective of a 29-year-old addict on “Illusion of Bliss.” Or on “Kill Your Mama,” where she takes on the role of spokesperson for all of Mother Earth’s wayward children, piling the platitudes onto a simple guitar melody: “Is there any savin’ us/We’ve become so dangerous/Is there any change in us/Even for the sake of love.” Instead, by personifying hip-hop, she is performing the first of several shifts in narrative perspective. So when Keys says “I’m the musical to the project fables/I’m the words scratched out on the record label/I’m the wind when the record spins/I’m the dramatic static before the song begins,” you don’t need to take it literally.
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She co-founded and is the Global Ambassador of the nonprofit HIV/AIDS-fighting organization Keep a Child Alive.“The Beginning (Interlude),” HERE’s opener, sets the scene for the album to work as a series of extended metaphors. Keys is also acclaimed for her humanitarian work, philanthropy and activism.
VH1 also included her on their 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and 100 Greatest Women in Music lists, while Time has named her in their 100 list of most influential people in 20. Considered a musical icon, Keys was named by Billboard the top R&B artist of the 2000s decade and placed number 10 on their list of Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years. She has sold over 65 million records worldwide. Keys has received numerous accolades in her career, including 15 competitive Grammy Awards, 17 NAACP Image Awards, 12 ASCAP Awards, and an award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and National Music Publishers Association. Her sixth studio album, Here (2016), became her seventh US R&B/Hip-Hop chart topping album. In 2013, VH1 Storytellers was released as her second live album. Girl on Fire (2012) was her fifth Billboard 200 topping album, spawning the successful title track, and won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album. In 2009, Keys also collaborated with Jay Z on "Empire State of Mind", which became her fourth number-one single and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Her fourth album, The Element of Freedom (2009), became her first chart-topping album in the UK, and sold 4 million copies worldwide. She, along with Jack White, recorded "Another Way to Die" (the title song to the 22nd official James Bond film, Quantum of Solace). In 2007, Keys made her film debut in the action-thriller film Smokin' Aces. Her third album, As I Am (2007), produced the Hot 100 number-one single "No One", selling 7 million copies worldwide and earning an additional three Grammy Awards. Keys released her first live album, Unplugged (2005), and became the first woman to have an MTV Unplugged album debut at number one. Her duet "My Boo" with Usher became her second number-one single in 2004. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards. Her second album, The Diary of Alicia Keys (2003), was also a critical and commercial success, spawning successful singles "You Don't Know My Name", "If I Ain't Got You", and "Diary", and selling eight million copies worldwide. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002. The album was critically and commercially successful, producing her first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single "Fallin'" and selling over 16 million copies worldwide. After disputes with the label, she signed with Arista Records, and later released her debut album, Songs in A Minor, with J Records in 2001. A classically-trained pianist, Keys was composing songs by age 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Columbia Records. Alicia Augello Cook Dean (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American musician, singer, and songwriter.
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