"I feel it is necessary to clarify the comments that were made during my recent Blender magazine interview since they have been misrepresented.

Anyone who knows me and my character, knows that I am not a conspiracy theorist or, by implication, a racist. My comments about ‘gangsta rap’ were in no way trying to suggest that the government is responsible for creating this genre of rap music. The point that I was trying to make was that the term was over-sloganized by some of the media causing reactions that were not always positive. Many of the ‘gangsta rap’ lyrics articulate the problems of the artists’ experiences and I think all of us, including our leaders, could be doing more to address these problems including drugs, gang violence, crime, and other related social issues.

Additionally, regarding the AK-47 reference, AK-47 is a nickname given to me by some of my friends in jest, as an acronym for Alicia Keys and a metaphor for wowing people with my music and performances, "killing ‘em dead" on stage. The reference was in no way meant to have a literal, political or negative connotation.

Peace to my family!!!!

I had to write you and tell you how EXCITED I am about this music and this album and how TOUCHED I am at how much you all have embraced it and loved it!

For this album to be NUMBER 1!!! is such a blessing! and I couldn't have done it without you so I had to write and give you MAAAAADDDD love and respect for all of your support of me from day 1!

I'm sitting here right now, seasoning up some fish for thanksgiving.

Hey...

Hey Fam!!!

So this time it's been MAAAAADDDDD long since I wrote here. But I know you guys forgive me since I've been grinding on this new music. haaahaaaaa!!!! This is it though! Now is the time and I'm about less than a week away from being totally done. I almost can’t believe it. This has ABSOLUTELY been the most profound year of my life! I can’t even explain the depth that it goes, the things that I’ve learned, The things that have made me first weaker than stronger and finally over all a better person in so many ways. I can barely believe the way things have turned out!

This moved me. And this day 8.29.07 is very important! Would you believe after 2 years this is STILL going on?? It's obvious that if we don't make some noise about this, it'll never change.
So, Let's just take 5 minutes starting now, to read through this message from Susan Taylor, editor of Essence Magazine, call the number(s) provided, make some noise and let those in power, who think that we are passive and that they can get away with ANYTHING, know we're not going for this....
Subject: 8/29 - A DAY OF PRESENCE - Message from Susan Taylor
Greetings, All-

Just checkin in....
Want to thank you for sharing some of where you are right now. What your feeling, what's going on in your world, a lot of changes.... But I wonder if there is ever a time that things are not changing?? Probably not. In one way or another it always will be. But in that I find comfort, knowing that I will always be finding out more, experiencing more and because of that becoming better. We all are.

WOW!

There should be an option of the moods you can select called melancholy... you know, not sad, but not exactly happy... I guess "ok" about sums it up. Anyway...I've been learning a lot. This has been such an interesting time for me. A lot of growth, a lot of understanding, a lot of realizing that things don't stay the same forever... they change shape.

This is an excerpt from an article that originally appeared on Daily OM.
"Every thought we have and action we take becomes part of the collective energy of the planet. When we use our energy to bring light into the world, it combines with the light brought by others to dispel the darkness. Though we live in a world of duality, which helps us to experience the material plane, we don't need to experience extremes to understand them. We can share our experiences and understanding with others not from a place of condescension but of connection.