Up until now, Jay-Z has been quiet about Lil Mama bogarting his and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State Of Mind” performance during the Video Music Awards (VMAs).
On Tuesday, December 21st, on Twitter Spaces, the Roc-Nation founder decided to come clean about how he really felt during the iconic moment in a rare social media-based interview.
Jay-Z said, “Of course, of course [we forgive her]. C’mon. Don’t do that. That’s our sister. Man, we love her. I wouldn’t recommend people just jumping on other artists’ stages.”
Really dope discussion with Alicia Keys…and JayZ is in the building 👇🏿
— @TJay (@TJay) December 22, 2021
“She’s a New Yorker… She got excited. Things happen,” Jay-Z continued. “Of course we love her… yes, she’s forgiven. It’s all love and she was coming from a place of love it’s just… may have been a little too excited.”
Twelve years ago, Lil Mama jumped on the VMAs stage during the middle of the two artists’ performance that saluted the Big City. After as many shared stories of how Hov was upset at her jumping in, she received extreme pushback.
Alicia Keys also recently spoke out on the incident on her episode of “Drink Champs” with N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN.
Really dope discussion with Alicia Keys…and JayZ is in the building 👇🏿
— @TJay (@TJay) December 22, 2021
“Basically, I remember absolutely nothing. I think I was so focused on performing. Because when you perform, it’s a lot,” she shared. “You gotta hit it. You gotta nail it. You gotta kill it. It has to be perfect. When I tell you, 100 percent, I was oblivious to the idea that next to him was another person, which kind of scared the s### out of me later when I figured it out.”
Since the performance, the now 32 years old, has gone on to do a few things. Her acting bag has pushed out films like CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story, All American, When Love Kills: The Falicia Blakely Story, and two out of the three True to the Game movies. True to the Game 3 just dropped on December 3rd.
And she is still putting out music.