Jay-Z and Alicia Keys perform onstage during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall on September 13, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Whew! More than a decade later, folks are still curious about Lil Mama’s pop up during Alicia Keys and Jay-Z’s performance at the 2009 Video Music Awards. If you’ll recall, Lil Mama was on top of the world with her hit single ‘Lip Gloss.’ But just as quickly as she rose, she fell after disrupting two established artists performing their track ‘Empire State of Mind.’ This time Alicia is giving additional insight to what Jay-Z had to say following the moment.
During an interview on ‘Drink Champs,’ N.O.R.E. asked Alicia about how upset she felt due to Lil Mama’s unplanned interruption. Alicia instantly flashed a smile before explaining “the truth of the truth.” The artist said she was so into her performance that not once did she notice Lil Mama had invited herself to join them.
“In my head, I was such a gorilla at the time I was…my eyes, I was like this is what’s happening, I’m gon’ destroy this record tonight,” Alicia said. “That’s all I had in my head.”
Alicia said she “didn’t even bear witness” to Lil Mama’s presence throughout the last leg of the performance. But apparently Jay-Z took note of the entire showdown and made sure to tap Alicia about it.
“I went backstage and Jay was like ‘so you ain’t see that,’ Alicia said. “And I was like ‘what.’ And he was like ‘nah you ain’t just see what just happened.’ And I was like ‘yeah we killed it that’s what just happened.”
For now, that’s about all we know of Jay-Z’s response that night. The clip shared by ‘Drink Champs’ is just a lil’ taste of their full conversation dropping on Thursday. However, we’re not complete strangers to how Jay-Z felt about Lil Mama’s actions. A few weeks after the incident, Jay-Z spoke to Angie Martinez on Hot 97.
“To interrupt that moment for us, I don’t think that was the right thing to do,” Jay-Z reportedly said. “It was a lot of planning that went into that performance. To disrupt that was out of line.”
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