Alicia Keys Reveals Jay-Z’s Reaction After Lil Mama Crashed Their VMA Performance

In a teaser for Alicia Keys’ interview with Drink Champs, set to air Thursday, N.O.R.E. asks her about the infamous VMA performance that Lil Mama crashed. 

Never one to mince words, the host came right out and asked, “How mad was you at Lil Mama when she f*cked up y’all performance?” N.O.R.E. is referring to her performance alongside Jay-Z of “Empire State of Mind” at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

She revealed that she never even saw Lil Mama on stage when she previously spoke about the incident. She reiterated on Drink Champs that she never saw her come on stage.

“The truth of all the truths — all I know, we was on that stage,” she said. “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.’ That’s all I had in my head. Somehow, however she got over here, I didn’t even bear witness to. The whole show, I was iced — so focused on making it amazing.”

But once they got off stage, Jay asked her about what happened. Keys thought he was talking about the performance. 

“I went backstage, and JAY was like, ‘So, you ain’t see that?'” she continued. “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.'”

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In October, Keys spoke about forgiving Lil Mama during an appearance on “The Morning Hustle Show,” confirming it was water under the bridge. She thinks Lil Mama just got caught up in the energy of the song as a native New Yorker.

Following the incident, Lil Mama became the subject of jokes and memes. The “Lip Gloss” rapper revealed that she reached out to Jay-Z and Keys to apologize for crashing their set; however, neither responded.