{{{for those of you who missed the b.e.t awards tonight, the show featured a performance by alicia keys. girlfriend was sporting a prince t-shirt from the 1999 era. i guess she needed somethin' to match her purple mini-fedora.

anyway, she did a sweet version of "inner city blues" as part of a star-studded tribute to the "greatest" (ali). also, i recently caught miss keys show here in h-town. not only did she do a great version of "how come u don't call me" (combining the ballad with the remix version), but she also did a cover of "shhh".}}}

i was quite surprised. when i heard the drum-based intro, i was like, "where do i know that from". then, just before the first "shhh, break it down", i got it. the crowd seemed to dig it. still, as good as it was, nothing beats prince's guitar work on that one.

all this makes me wonder if there will be future covers and/or collaborations between the two. even if not, it is way cool to see (and hear) one of today's biggest stars paying so much homage to our man prince.

peace, and keep it on the 1...

Yeah I saw her perform at the Essence Festival in New Orleans back in July...she covered "Shhh" there too...I thought she did a pretty good job and it was cool to see her up and dancin instead of parked at the keyboard. Unfortunately, the crowd was hatin on her quite badly, and was much more hyped for Luther. She has her moments live, but overall the girl can't sing and dance at the sane time. Her voice wavers and cracks. It woulda been a lot better if the audience was there to see her, but other acts seemed to take precedent.
[This message was edited Wed Jul 31 15:56:41 PDT 2002 by HaReMz]

I was at that show, Essence. She was OK but nothing spectacular. Her voice doesn't impress me even though she can play the hell out of that piano. So I left after her show started and went to see Me'Shell NdegeOcello. SHE WAS AMAZING!! I think Alicia needs some better material and to give it a rest for a minute. I'm about as tired of her as I am of all the recently dubbed Pop Princesses. And it's always helpful to cover material you knew was a hit before.

yeah, her voice does need to mature. what she does have going for her is performance ability, and i'll gladly hear an occasional missed note or cracked voice from someone who is really singing and dancing (michael, janet, are you listening)...

still, miss keys does know how to work a crowd. it'll be interesting to watch her develope. also, she seams so sincere when relating to her audience...

I am very tired of her overrated ass with that slow ass vibrato! she was on the Bet awards actin like a danm fool. And she made that wack ass acceptance speech. Somebody get the tar, I got the feathers!

On the BET awards, her speech was a response to the "almost fight" in the audience during the show. Sug Knight and Snoop and his people almost got into it.

Alicia was talking about that when she said too many people died because of ego.

Vivica also came out and said One Love before presenting the award. The confrontation happend right before a commercial break.

Argh...I think her version of ´How come u dont call me´ sucks...Stephanie Mills was much better IMO...
I hope she doesnt ruin ´Shh´...

I never heard her playing piano live, but she didnt show nothing on her album. I am afraid she is overrated just because she plays an instrument...and even if she has all that musicianship, why was her album so weak?

i saw alicia keys performance of shhh... at mohegan sun, it was phenomenal! stop hatin' she is like the best new artist i've seen in a while!

Alicia Keyes is Great. Her piano Playing ,her singing. I think she's really Fantastic and a Great New Talent. She does awonderful rendition of How Come You Don't Call Me and she was Wonderful with Prince at the World Afterparty.

Everybody and their mother has made some comment about the violence that has been erupting in the music particularly rap industry. It is getting just as played out and predictable as the violence itself. Apparently, Suge Knight isn't going to let it die until he does. He is a gangsta for cryin out loud! How the hell is a keyboard player going to convince him otherwise if he doesn't want to change his lifestyle. Everybody who ever took up with Suge knows how he conducts business. I knew about the damn confrontation that went down. Snoop is a damn crip himself! All I'm saying is if you know the two and what has been said even when Suge was locked up then you would have seen this shit comin from a country mile away! The speech was wack! That shit was going to go down no matter who yelled "Can't we all just get along". Suge is not trying to hear that shit. So just accept the damn award and sit your ass down. I don't condone the violence. But maybe people who are always trying to mediate only help to further give Suge the attention he is seeking now that he no longer has the acts to keep him in the spotlight. If a fight breaks out and then it is a calm situation, let it go! It's an award show, not a peace rally!

don't ask me what i first thought when i seen the title of this thread...

i was wondering if someone would get that...

I would love to listen to a new jam with Alicia and Prince. She one of my favorites, and he's above all.
[This message was edited Tue Aug 6 11:10:30 PDT 2002 by Starmist7]