Keys to Misstatements?

Alicia Keys now says that her comments about gansta rap were taken out of context and misstated by reporters at Blender magazine. I wonder about that. It might be nice to see if the magazine and reporter can proffer evidence - audiotapes or notes from the interview that can corroborate their story or undermine Keys' claims that she was misrepresented. Blender says that they stand by the story.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Keys said she was clarifying "comments that were made during my recent Blender magazine interview since they have been misrepresented."

According to an interview in the magazine's May issue, the 27-year-old singer says: "`Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. `Gangsta rap' didn't exist." She also is quoted as saying that she wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck "to symbolize strength, power and killing 'em dead."

"We stand by our story," Blender spokeswoman Kate Cafaro told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Stay tuned.

Off Key

Once again, a Hollywood entertainer decides that they're convinced that a government conspiracy is out to get a group of people. In this case, Alicia Keys had decided that the government is behind gangsta rap in order to kill blacks.

Keys told Blender magazine, "'Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. 'Gangsta rap' didn't exist."

Keys also said that the feud between Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. was fueled "by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing."

Keys said that she wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck "to symbolize strength, power and killing 'em dead."

(The Blender article is only partially available and her comments about rap aren't included in the free area.) Never mind that gang violence was a massive problem in the African American community well before gangsta rap was even around. Gangsta rap developed as a result of gang members in those already affected communities writing and rapping about their experiences. It resonated with many in the African American community much to the chagrin of family groups that saw it as yet another manifestation of the degradations and disintegration imposed on African American families by fellow African Americans. The East-West coast battles between competing rap group affiliations didn't need government intervention. They were extensions of the gang affiliations of the various individuals and groups involved, combined with business interests in expanding their power base in Hollywood.

None of that matters much to Keys, who will continue to believe what she wants to believe, regardless of its veracity. It's so much easier for her (like many) to blame the government for what ails the African American community rather than to see that many of the problems are self-inflicted and the government programs that were initially meant to help people have been counterproductive.