Alicia Keys | Black Excellence

For this episode of #BlackExcellence iHeartRadio’s Jamar McNiel highlights just some of the reasons why Alicia Keys is #BlackExcellence.

Keys started playing piano at age six and studied classical music and jazz. Her exposure to the music of Billie Holiday Ella Fitzgeral and Thelonius Monk as well as Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin explain her signature style of fusing the classical sound with Black Swag. She wrote her first song at the age of 12 on the piano and shortly after She signed a record deal at 15.

She had a rough start in her professional career. Creative disputes about her songs her look, her hair and her overall presentation made things difficult for her during her relationship with record label. She was able to get attention from the one and only Clive Davis who brought her over to his new label J Records where he allowed her to have creative control of her music and her likeness. Without that support, we might not have gotten the Alicia Keys with her urban wear and her signature Corn rows that let us know that this classic piano virtuoso was keeping it ALL THE WAY REAL

At 20, she released her debut album Songs in A Minor. It’s one of my fav albums. A combo of Soul, Classical Piano, Neo Soul and BoomBap east coast hip hop. She’d been working on it since she was only 14. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and earned Keys five Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year for “Fallin’

Keys co-founded Keep a Child Alive, a non-profit organization that supports families with HIV and AIDS in Africa and India. In 2017, she was named by Amnesty International, an award that also went to Canadian Indigenous rights activists.

Alicia Keys over came her rough environment of Hell’s Kitchen Manhattan and the tough pressures of the corporate recording industry to be given titles like, Artist of the decade, one of the 100 Greatest Women in Music, 100 most influential people in the world to name a few.

Check back for more #BlackExcellence​​ videos throughout #BlackHistoryMonth​​

CREDITS:
Research By Jamar McNeil, John R. Kennedy

Alicia Keys and the Indigenous Rights Movement in Canada honoured with Top Amnesty International Award, April 13th 2017

Alicia Keys names Top R&B Artist of the Decade By Raphael George, December 18th 2009

Alicia on TIME 100 Most Influential People – April 20th 2017

Songs in A Minor / J Records
You Don’t Know My Name / J Records
Empire State of Mind / Roc Nation, Atlantic Records
Fallin’ / J Records
If I ain’t Got You / J Records

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