*Music producer Swizz Beatz sat down with MTV News to discuss rumors that an affair with R&B superstar Alicia Keys broke up his marriage to R&B singer Mashonda. Swizz says the only “affair” having to do with Keys was the “Teenage Love Affair” remix he produced featuring LL Cool J. Reports of anything more salacious with the singer – as suggested in stories posted on MediaTakeOut.com and in the pages of Hip Hop Weekly – are simply not true.

“That sh** just looks like drama,” he told MTV of the media outlets. “They got another big name involved. No, I’m not doing [any] f***ing interviews. Only thing I’m commenting on is music-related. I don’t comment on my personal life. Why start now? You start commenting on that sh**, then they start twisting it out. I’m not gonna speak about nothing. They [gave Mashonda] two pages in Hip Hop Weekly. She didn’t even say nothing about Alicia. They blew it up on MediaTakeout.com. They flipped that into some other sh**. (more…)

I was born in 1981, about the same time as the first cases of AIDS were diagnosed. In this limited amount of time, AIDS has grown into the worst public health crisis in human history.

It’s amazing to think that all this has happened since I was a child and that myself and people younger than me have never lived in a world without this devastating disease looming over us. (more…)

Alicia Keys has aspirations of being a rock star, belting over screaming guitars. She also sees herself as a jazz chanteuse, elegantly dressed while scat-singing and improvising melodies on her beloved piano. Then she wants to do more acting — some drama, maybe comedy — and establish more charitable efforts. The list of things she wants to accomplish goes on and on.

But it’s not as if the pop superstar with the seductive, camera-ready face hasn’t done a lot already. At 27, with a career that’s barely a decade old, she owns 11 Grammys and four multiplatinum albums. Along with Beyonce, she is one of the most visible, lauded pop performers of her generation. Still, Keys wants to confound your expectations of her — especially in the realm of music. (more…)

Before taking the stage at Verizon Center last night, Alicia Keys met with some local fans — a half-dozen teen girls, all singers in the Washington Performing Arts Society’s Children of the Gospel Choir. At-large D.C. Council member Kwame Brown’s office set up the meeting (an echo of last year, when more than 100 area girls got to meet and pose for pics with Beyoncé). The choir singers were invited after two of them testified at a May 10 D.C. Council hearing about how music boosted their self-confidence and academic achievement.

The girls sang a quick song; Keys, in black skinny jeans and cropped leather jacket, clapped and told them they have beautiful voices. Brown Chief of Staff Irma Esparza says it’s all about “being able to instill kids living in D.C. with some hope, letting them know there are opportunities out here and you can do whatever it is you want to do.”

Alicia Keys wants to follow in the footsteps of Angelina Jolie and adopt a brood of multi-racial children. The singer insists she loves kids and working alongside South African orphans in 2006 charity movie We Are Together made her broody to have children of her own.

But the 28-year-old insists motherhood is on the backburner for now, while she pursues her singing career. Speaking to WENN at a special screening of the movie in New York City on Thursday night, Keys said, “I’ve always loved kids. Kids are so important. It’s important to nurture and spend time with them and listen to them.

“I’m not ready to be a mom. But (adoption) is something that is important to consider. That’s what I really admire about Angelina. I think it’s beautiful the way she embraces children of the world.” And she insists she would like to create a family of different cultures, like Jolie: “We are all one. We’re not as separate as we oftentimes think. So I possibly would (adopt), when I’m more in the motherhood stage of my life.”

Yesterday Alicia attended the premiere of the movie “We Are Together.” I have added many pictures to the gallery.

Click here to watch a video from the set of “Superwoman” videoclip and read an article below.

‘No matter who we are or what we’re going through, we all are superwomen,’ singer says.

She won’t be leaping any tall buildings or saving the planet from total annihilation at the hands of a well-funded, deranged, criminal mastermind. But in the forthcoming video for “Superwoman,” Alicia Keys will be paying homage to all of womankind, in her own unique way.

“The video is representing all kinds of superwomen, and the exciting part is, not only am I able to be myself in the video, but I’m able to play all of these other women as well,” Keys told MTV News on the “Superwoman” set this week. The single is the latest from Keys’ 2007 LP As I Am, which to date has sold nearly 3.5 million copies. “One example is a woman who is a young mother who is struggling and trying to make ends meet but also has bigger dreams for herself. She wants to go to school, so we’ll see her filling out applications. She’s a superwoman because it’s hard to do all of those things.” (more…)

On June 7, 2008 Alicia performed at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois. I have added 3 pictures to the gallery.

A friend of Ms. Keys since high school, Vice used his spectacular and undeniable flair for fashion to take Alicia from her days of braids and fedoras to the sleek sophistication we see today. Even as he was preparing outfits for Alicia Keys’ next video, he took a moment to talk to The Fashion Bomb on how he got his start.

Wouri always had a fashionable eye. “In high school I was the kid with one green sock and one blue sock because I was wearing blue and green.” He went to college for fashion journalism, but after too many boring lectures on Plato and the philosophy of style, he decided to follow his true passion. “I started making clothes for student groups. When I came home during the summer, I worked as an intern at Giorgio Armani.” He followed his Armani internship with several more with prominent stylists. He came to style for Alicia after reconnecting post high school. He says, “I used to tell Alicia that I would be a huge stylist and she would be a big singer. I told her I would be her stylist, and we laughed. But now you see how things came around…” (more…)

Early in her concert at the Palace on Friday night (June 6), Alicia Keys complained to the crowd about managers and record company executives who “tried to get me to shake it more and take off more.”

She’s managed to do just fine in her career without succumbing to those demands — to the tune of 25 million albums sold and 11 Grammy Awards won. And with her tidy, one-hour and 45-minute show, Keys proved that classy could still be just as captivating as more flesh-baring spectacles by chart neighbors such as Beyonce and Mariah. (more…)