One is called “So Simple.” I manipulated my voice, so it’s almost like me featuring myself as a different sound. What’s the most adventurous track on the record? I’m really thankful for that, because she’s not a pushover, and neither am I. My mother’s such a strong person that she really instilled that kind of strength in me as well. We went through a lot when I was younger, and I saw pretty immediately what life is and what life isn’t. You seem to have been almost absurdly grounded right from the get-go. And if I find myself feeling like that, I’m like, “Go take a walk, go to the movies or something, go see your grandmother, go get with your homegirls and drive around and be silly.” I think we sometimes make things extra heavy for ourselves. Surely you are feeling some stress about the expectations that are on you. “I feel like it’s the first time all over again.” “I’m so excited about this album,” she says. The single “You Don’t Know My Name” even revives the good old spoken interlude, in a phone call to a crush, which she did in one take (“I feel kind of silly doing this, but this is the waitress from the coffeehouse… the one with the braids”). It’s a stunner, a blend of hip-hop with warmth and feeling (“Streets of New York” is an affectionate ode to her hometown, opened and closed by Nas and Rakim) as well as instant soul classics that invoke the best of Seventies AM radio. When you hear The Diary of Alicia Keys, due out in December, you’ll know why. Her mellow smile is confounding: Doesn’t she know that all eyes are on her for the release of her second record? Few debuts were as celebrated as 2001’s Songs in A Minor, but Keys says she isn’t feeling the pressure of a follow-up. Keys, 22, wears jeans, a brown, yellow and cream leather jacket and big ol’ sparkly black earrings. It’s a scene repeated all over the city: a pretty New York girl spending a crisp fall afternoon on a fire escape. “This is one of my favorite spots,” she says, climbing out a window and surveying the downtown street three floors below as her legs dangle. There is a family feel to the proceedings, as Keys makes her way through the various rooms, dispensing hugs and how-you-doings and joking with some of the kids who run in and out. The New York recording studio where Alicia Keys is finishing up her new album is as calm and peaceful as she is, with its incense-scented corridors and flickering votive candles.
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