Alicia Keys admits her success comes from having a “really tough mama”. Alicia grew up in Hells Kitchen as a single child with her mother after their father left them when Alicia was two years old. Since then Alicia came into her own with her own family and a successful music career. Alicia tells Britain’s Guardian that working hard wasn’t because she wanted to be an overachiever,
“I never saw it that way,” she says. “I just see it as having to do what I had to do to get heard. Growing up in New York City, everybody wanted to be heard, so you had to do the work.” As a teenager in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, she was also compelled to decide “if I was going to do the right thing or the wrong thing, take drugs or not take drugs, or end up getting into the wrong scenario. So many people I knew ended up in jail.” How did she avoid the wrong scenario? She smiles. “I had a really tough mama.”
Stepping into her own role as a mother, Alicia was spotted with her family, her 9-month son Egypt and her step son Kasseem Jr. while out in NYC.
