She was quoted saying that Gangsta rap was ”a ploy to convince black people to kill each other," and that the mainstream media, the record industry and those in power allowed it to flourish.

After a major wave of negative responses, Alicia attempted some damage-control and issued a statement saying that her comments were ”misrepresented”, that she did not believe in any conspiracy theory and that she was by no means a racist.

Her opinions unwillingly succeeded in upsetting a lot of people, one of them being popular rapper 50 Cent. In an interview with Rhapsody, he expressed his discontent on the matter saying: ”I don’t like Alicia Keys no more.” He made it clear that he took her statement very personally and continued the interview using some strong language.

He explained that he felt targeted by Alicia’s words, words which were coming from someone that couldn’t relate to his life experience and therefore couldn’t truly understand what his music was about. 50 also admits to not being fond of Alicia’s music and also not being able to connect to the classical sounds and the piano because of his upbringing.

He thinks that many others share his opinion, naming Ice Cube and the rest of the N.W.A. crew.

”So she don’t like the music that embodies the harsh realities because they’re not her realities. She hasn’t been subjected to the same things,” 50 concluded before moving on to other matters.