Alicia Keys Clarifies Gangsta Rap Comments

Alicia Keys has taken to the airwaves to "clarify statements" she made about gangsta rap in men's magazine Blender.

In the new article, the R&B star sensationally claims gangsta rap was "a ploy to convince black people to kill each other... by the government."

But, after reading the piece in the new issue of Blender, Keys insists her comments were "misinterpreted" and she's "disappointed" with the "madness" surrounding the article.

Speaking on Los Angeles DJ Ryan Seacrest's radio show on Tuesday morning, Keys explained: "I feel that I wasn't a hundred per cent clear on what I was saying and so, because of that, it got slightly misinterpreted, and somehow it got misinterpreted that I was saying that the government was creating gangsta rap - and that's not what I was saying.

"What I was saying was that the term gangsta rap was so over sloganised during that time... That's what I was trying to talk about.

"In so many ways, everyday people, as well as the government, could have really done so much more to sorta (sic) obliterate and eradicate the things that were going on in the communities at that time that forced the artists to discuss and talk about, so strongly, what they saw, what they lived with.

"I wasn't saying that I'm a conspiracy theorist, and I wasn't saying that I'm anti-anyone because anybody who knows my character knows that I'm a very positive person... My only aim is to uplift people and spread love.

"You're in an interview for half and hour, 45 minutes... and you're talking about these different thoughts and ideas and I think... there's a way that I didn't exactly clarify what I meant to the point where he (the journalist) could misinterpret it.

"I don't regret doing this interview; overall it was a great article. It was merely a line or two that has provoked all of this madness. I regret that a negative spin has been put (on it)."