Jay Z Recalls VMA Performance With Alicia Keys, Duo Spills Real Deal During ‘Incidental’ Performance With Lil Mama

Jay-Z and Alicia Keys finally came together and talked about their 2009 MTV VMAs performance where Lil Mama joined them.

Recently, Keys had a conversation with Jay-Z through Twitter Spaces with Genius' Rob Markman. And as reported by Complex, they brought up the "incident" that became viral 12 years before Lil Mama joined their hit "Empire State of Mind" performance.

Hov And Keys Speaks

The Genius host asked if they forgave Lil Mama when she crashed the stage. Mr. Carter responded, "Of course, of course." He also added, "C'mon. Don't do that... That's our sister. Man, we love her. I wouldn't recommend people just jumping on other artists' stages."

The rapper further expounded, "She's a New Yorker... She got excited. Things happen. Of course we love her... yes, she's forgiven. It's all love and she was coming from a place of love it's just... may have been a little too excited."

The comments from Jay-Z came after Alicia Keys also spoke up in a separate interview about the incident in early December this year for Complex's "360" with host Speedy Morman.

During the interview, she said, "Basically, I remember absolutely nothing."

"I think I was so focused on performing. Because when you perform, it's a lot. You gotta hit it. You gotta nail it. You gotta kill it. It has to be perfect." The 40-year-old added, "When I tell you, 100 percent, I was oblivious to the idea that next to him was another person, which kind of scared the shit out of me later when I figured it out."

Post-VMA Performance Conversation

Aside from the recent reunion on Twitter, the "Diary" singer also talked about the issue in an interview with Drink Champs. Keys revealed what happened backstage after their VMA performance, including Lil Mama. "The truth of all the truths... all I know, we was on that stage," Keys stated.

"Jay was here. I was here. In my head, I was such a gorilla at the time and I was like, 'This is what's happening. I'm going to destroy this record tonight.'... Somehow, however she got over here, I didn't even bear witness to."

The singer-songwriter further elaborated, "The whole show I was iced... so focused on making it amazing. I went backstage and Jay was like, 'So, you ain't see that?'"

"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 happened,'"

Tags

Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Lil Mama, MTV VMAs