With Alicia Keys’ participation in causes deep and meaningful (Keep A Child Alive, Live Earth and helping to push G8 Summit leaders in the right direction) she looked real happy to kick her shoes off at the BET Awards. A little time out from work. You saw her on that stage, full of energy, “Come on people.. you having fun?”.. Speaking for herself on the low. Truly a night out for Miss Keys. Come sunrise it’s back to work in the studio and then getting that smile ready for the publicity mill. Alicia Keys is close to finishing her next album “As I Am,” set for an October 23rd release date, you should be hearing an appetizer in the coming weeks. Oh wait, this is the appetizer. A cell clip of Alicia Keys singing a song called “Super Woman” has been leaked to the net. It’s been around for two weeks or so, Krucial Keys.. just posted it yesterday, so I guess it’s now officially leaked. << things I find funny. Sounds like classic Alicia Keys material. That picture up top is from her next movie The Nanny Diaries, in theaters September 7th. Alicia Keys plays Scarlett Johansson’s friend, Lynette, Scarlett Johansson is the nanny. Now I know there are plenty of white nannies pushing strollers around the city, and the movie is based on a book of real life sketches by a former nanny, who happens to be white, so there is nothing odd or slighty about the roles. However, Alicia Keys playing the friend is what I also like to think of as smartly sidestepping the stereotype. That’s all we needed, was to have Alicia Keys pushing an even lighter and brighter baby down the sidewalk talking about, “I’se so tired!” Yeah, let’s leave that for the next sketch comedy show.

Number one in the UK. Two on the U.S. Billboard charts.

You know how I know Hip-Hop has a foot in its nut sack? Because my ‘hip-hop’ album of the moment is The White Stripes “Icky Thump.” Yeah, while everyone is partying like rock stars, I’m listening to them. It should be noted I bought the album the same day I gave Rihanna a digit on soundscan, picking up her album despite having the ripped web copy; also gave Chrisette Michele’s album some much deserved love; and then there was The White Stripes album, I had to have it.

I remember a few years back when they performed on the MTV Awards, looking at them with a blank stare and the outsider’s response, like.. “OK, I guess that’s what the ‘dudes’ are feelin’.”

Last week Tyrese was on The Conan O’Brien Show, I tuned in thinking I’d get something postable. Tyrese talked about the Shirts Off Tour, Transformers, and chocolate milk making his voice deep, which didn’t register as anything blurbable, or maybe it was just overshadowed by The White Stripes performance. Unlike the MTV Awards, this time they caught me. There is something about a female banging out a hard-ass drum beat with a calm “I could do this in my sleep” look on her face, combined with screechy, guitar work and high-pitched vocals supplying attitude and edge, the back and forth between the two, that is so soothing to the auditory canal.

This isn’t some teenage, bubble-pop, angst music.

As Conan excitedly described the White Stripe’s performance when they hit the last lick..“That’s the real thing. I could hear that twice.”

The album is more of the same. 13 tracks of loveliness.

Partake.. and let it get to the first break. That’s hard!

Albums awaiting purchase: Pharoahe Monch “Desire” and The Beastie Boys “The Mix Up”; diversification is where sanity lives.

I’m smiling like T.I. on the cover of VIBE magazine, finally able to kick this Expression Engine hard enough so it’s at least spitting out the blurbs. Still a few problems with old comments not being counted, new comments slide in and print fine, but the ones I salvaged from the blowout skip the count algorithm. They do print on the page. I save daily from here on in. Enough with that..

Last night during a break I stopped by the newsstand and Habib was getting the latest copies of Vibe magazine. T.I. was on the cover and inside a really good interview to go with it. He talks about Tiny, rapping for money vs. rapping for skill, and gives some insight behind his feelings during that shootout in Cincinnati a year ago and his friend’s death. That’s too complex to pull one quote from, got to grab the magazine for that.

As far as Tiny is concerned..

“Shit, that’s my old lady. She’s very important. She means to me what my mother meant to me as a kid - somebody that you know consistently there, has your best interests at heart, and if ain’t nobody else there in the world. [She’s] gon’ be there. [Tiny’s] filled that spot in my life.”

But you know with T.I. being who he is, there is the ability to sample women from state to state, almost any kind and time he likes. How does that play into his relationship with Tiny? Does she care?

“I don’t know about that. What do you mean? Open relationship? Hell nah.

VIBE: There’s been speculation

“What’s that mean?”

VIBE: I’ve seen you in the club.

“No you haven’t *laughing* When have you been in my house with me and another woman *cracking up*? All right then. So you do not see anything. It’s all right.. I could understand how you could assume.

He goes on to say they’ve broken up two times before, and he chooses not to say too much more than that, because when certain personal things get out, that’s when the sideline critiquing starts.

When it comes to music T.I. defends rapping for numbers as opposed to trying to be the best rapper alive, or are those two things one and the same?

“I care about making the best albums. Rapping? That’s like asking a football player, does he care about running? A basketball player, does he care about dunking? It’s something you do in the process of. You have to know how to rap very, very good to be able to make a great song, which will enable you to become prolific.

When I was rapping a whole lot, it didn’t equate to numbers.

When I didn’t rap so much, it did equate to numbers. So I figure I split the difference and take the best of the two and combine them together.

If I knew that there was more of a demand for songs like these, then that’s what I would do. I’m only gonna make songs that the market supports.”

Can’t argue with that logic; snippet is the new 320 page book.

His album is sure to be a hot seller, something I’m definitely checking for first week out. We who care for getting our money’s worth, can only hope the true last laugh comes from our mouths and is in response to what ‘little bit of’ rapping T.I. does being absolutely on fire.

Entertainment Weekly’s annual Must List aka “The 100 Stars We’re Loving Right Now” hit newsstands this week. Kanye West, Polow Da Don and Rihanna were the only Hip-Hop and R&B artists that made the list. Well, maybe you want to allow Justin Timberlake in the door to continue the re-sexifing of America. You know he refuses to sit in the pop slot.

Polow Da Don was mentioned for upcoming tracks on Nicole Scherzinger’s solo album, Mariah Carey, and Alicia Keys.

The love for Kanye West is for his next album Graduation, talking about its stripped from samples sound, more synthesizers, more complex orchestration and experimentation that take it beyond the typical rap wavelength. “It’s my job to entertain people on a higher level, and I don’t take it lightly,” said Kanye. By the way, graduation doesn’t mean he’s done with hip-hop. Quotage: “I’ll retire when I die.” Or chased out of the room.

On the Rihanna front, there are the model-rific photos she always seems to take.

Show me a bad photo of Rihanna and I’ll tell you it must be her cousin.

The article doesn’t have any really revealing facts that haven’t been published elsewhere. They did include some advice Jay-Z gave her about how not to get caught in a situation where she might have a bad photo of another kind blasted to the world.

“The biggest advice I can give her is to keep her circle tight, because she can’t control anything else outside of that. She can’t control people’s opinion of her records or what’s being said on the blogs.. but if she has the proper friends, she won’t get caught up in the wild child lifestyle. They will bring her back and be like, ‘You might wanna pull your skirt down.’”

Elsewhere in Rihanna world, there are whispers that Def Jam isn’t feeling her album sales thus far. She’s in multiple magzines, all over the blogosphere, “Umbrella” charted #1 in the UK, top 2 US, big public performances before the album, and first week out the album sell-scanned less than T-Pain.

The following week, she’s still a little under 250k sold in total. The drank buyer is still a few copies ahead of her. I need not explain how humiliating that has to be.

Her last two albums have gone platinum, it remains to be seen if her new video can spark sales.

Different, bold, the review of her album is steam metered.

What do you do once the BET Awards have come and gone? How about list the top 25 freaks of all time. Yes, this is what they call entertainment. Set to air on June 27 at 10 pm, the beautiful minds at Black Entertainment have assembled a host of celebrity names, checked their past for scandalous behavior and are set to prove they are truly the freakiest people on the planet.

Hosted by Top Model’s Toccara and John Salley, it’s a special “R” rated affair, yet filled with the kind of laughs BET guarantees will have you rolling on your living room floor.

Everyone likes a sneak peek, confirmed BET Freaks will be..

Ray-J

Lil Kim

Kobe Bryant

Trina

Buffie the Body

Vida Guerra

and… Billy Clinton

Who are the top three freaks? Hell, top five..

I had no interest in watching, but that mysterious number one freak has got me thinking.

Got it. It’s so obvious I’ll feel bad ruining it.

Think I’ll R let K you E do L that Y.