Alicia Keys' New Album 'Here' Affirms Why We Must Stay Woke

Gone are the days of cornrow braids, shimmery lips and a tomboy exterior for Alicia Keys. In fact, much of that aesthetic left the building shortly after 2001 when her colossal debut, Songs in A Minor, helped further dissolve the teen pop bubblegum music trend of the late '90s. But as the 35-year-old R&B singer walks into iHeartRadio HQ in New York City, it's evident that not that much has changed for this Manhattan-born singer. Her city drawl is still just as calming as it is assertive. That warm embrace when she hugs a colleague remains sincere. But the biggest change for this 15x Grammy award winner is her new-found voice (an inner voice, that is) to stimulate minds, speak for the unspoken and, ultimately, create change.

Hours before the release of Here, her sixth full-length studio effort, which tackles a social agenda unlike any of her previous efforts, the superstar spoke with iHeartRadio in a one-on-one interview about the 18-track album and opened up about why it's important to understand the set's underlying mission statement to accept and embrace diversity in a landscape that might not easily allow us to do so.

"I just feel such a thrill because I know what this music is and I know how badly I want you to hear it," she admits of the then yet-to-be-released LP. "I want it to get inside of you and I want you to be hitting me [up], like, 'This is what this song made me feel' and 'This is what this made me think.'" 

Exactly five years since the day when I last spoke with Keys on the carpet of her KCA Black Ball, her annual gala to raise funds for the Keep a Child Alive initiative, Keys remains just as thrillingly passionate about her current priority, but something about this feels different. Full of thought-provoking tracks that will implore one to step outside of their comfort zones and dive deep into Keys' personal journey of her deep-rooted connections with the streets of New York City, Here marks a significant milestone in her career.

"I love this album so much because it's also been kind of a revelation of myself arriving to a place where I've always wanted to be. I've always wanted to be able to speak about my personal feelings or things that we're going through in the world," she explains of the gritty soul-driven offering, which bowed at the No. 2 spot on the new Billboard 200 chart.

Whether it's the mixture of rasp and fury in her voice when detailing the struggles of the ghetto on "The Gospel," which also serves as the title to the album's accompanying 22-minute documentary, or the celebratory confessions of an imperfectly perfect family (particularly her relations as a stepmother to Swizz Beatz' children of another marriage) on "Blended Family (What You Do For Love),"Here is entirely full of intent, driven by political sensibility through the eyes of a woman, who has first-hand experience of what it's like to grow up as an inner-city bi-racial female. Sonically, it levels up her discography, serving as her boldest LP to date.

Elsewhere on Here, Keys offers up another hometown anthem that hears her merging two very different songs with two very different themes. First up is the ode to all the tough New York City queens over a warm throwback hip-hop backbeat on "She Don't Really Care," before the switch-up to "1 Luv." The latter samples Nas' "One Love" and serves as a self-reflective moment for Keys as a vocalist, storyteller and, more importantly, a person.

Describing the song as a "very authentic kind of hip-hop moment," Keys says the track is a special hybrid evolution that's connecting with folks from all walks of life. "It's one of my favorites, too. 'She Don't Really Care' was the first song I recorded in that body, so there's something special about that," she adds.

But what about those listeners that can't find any personal antidotes to connect to the social agenda at hand? Keys ponders for a bit, before taking a moment to emphasize that no struggle is "more difficult or more challenging or harder or worse" than others. 

"There's definitely degrees of it, for sure, but regardless we all understand that feeling of what it feels like to just wish something was different or want to make it better or try to find a way to do something that you don't have the courage to do," she explains. "When I hear what other people think it means, it always shocks me because I'm like, 'Wow I didn't even think of that,' but to that person that's what they relate it to, so I feel like that's what's going to happen."

With a decade and a half career that hits all the traditional marks of what commercial success means for a Top 40 artist, Alicia Keys seems to have found a different kind of success to attribute to her musical superiority. "It's been such a process and an experience for me to be able to find my vulnerability, and find my bravery, and my real voice. [It's] beyond just what I sing about. [It's] what I think about," she says of her new-found voice. Similar to the integrity and goals of recent releases from Macklemore & Ryan Lewisand Solange, Keys' ability to craft a collection that speaks to her heart while simultaneously breaking down the emotional state of black America, or staying "woke" as you might call it, is finally Here.

Photo: Katherine Tyler for iHeartRadio