Lil Mama has opened up about her infamous crashing of JAY-Z and Alicia Keys‘ VMAs performance back in 2009, making it clear that the fallout afterwards left her “hurt.”
That’s the confession she made during an interview on The Jay Hill Network on Thursday (March 14), wherein she also revealed that the subsequent backlash took a serious toll on her mental health.
“Yeah, in the beginning, I was hurt,” she began. “Tyrese called my phone as soon as I got home. He was like, ‘Bro, you didn’t tell me you was performing!’ First of all, my heart is racing. I’m already mad embarrassed.
“I had to deal with Ed Lover on the radio in the morning, Wendy Williams, Angie Martinez, who talked to JAY, and he was just like, ‘Yeah, you know. I didn’t like it.’ He was so angry, and I was just trying my best to do everything I could do. After a while, I was like, ‘Forgive yourself, bro. Move forward.’”
She continued: “Bro, I was hurt. I was depressed. I was like, ‘Yo, what’s going on?’ And then you got everybody telling you, ‘You’re doing bad.’ People pointing at you, like, ‘What did you do?’”
The comments about the VMAs begin at the 2:35 mark below.
Back in 2009, Alicia Keys teamed up with JAY-Z to perform their hit song “Empire State of Mind” at the MTV VMAs.
Lil Mama was, apparently, so moved by the performance that she hopped onstage to serve as the unofficial hypeman — even as Hov’s wife, Beyoncé, unsuccessfully tried to stop her from becoming a Twitter trending topic by repeatedly yanking her arm.
Despite Lil Mama becoming the punchline of many jokes afterward, Keys told The Morning Hustle in October 2021 that she wasn’t even aware of the rapper’s presence.
“Listen, to this day, I truly never knew she was even on the stage — that’s the craziest part of the whole thing for me,” she said. “I was on that stage, [JAY-Z] was in the middle, she was on the other side of Jay, and I never saw her.”
Then, back in March 2023, Keys and Lil Mama shared a warm embrace at an event in New York City as Teyana Taylor looked on. While it’s unclear what the event was for — though Revolt suggested it was to celebrate Taylor’s latest film, A Thousand and One — it’s the video of the “Girl on Fire” singer and the “Lip Gloss” rapper-turned-actor that sent social media into a tizzy.
“God is Moving all up and through this MF!” wrote one commenter. “Hope she apologized again cause man…” wrote another.
empire state of SHIT
She tell the same story about every 3 to 4 years and cries all the time
Man. Can’t blame her. These news outlets refuse to move on and have to bring up the same question for clickbait. Like, I’m tired of Wackzino always questioned about Em for example. Or Ja and murda inc asked about the 50 beef. I understand what you saying, but half the blame falls on the weak atmosphere of this modern day journalism. If you want to even call it that.
Exactly right. Also This is where being media trained comes into play, being able to divert questions and making agreements before start of interview. 50 cent comes to my mind in diverting questions, he answers and bless off on a tangent and talks about what he wants
Who the fuck is lil mama
Damn she take a long time to tell a dumb ass story that nobody remembers but her.
Nobody remembers this happening tbh.
ODB at the grammys is world history. Who is this???
lil ma so spot on. I think everyone felt hurt by that. I didn’t know a single real one who didn’t feel hurt in the aftermath. Lil mama is a generational icon
LMAOOOOO!!!
You know what I’d be thinking about sometimes, what some people do in life to have God be like “no, you know what your identity in life is going to be the girl who went on stage and crash Alicia Keys performance. God loves us, but he sure does like to play around lmao
talking down lil ma like the bitch you are – no fucking class period
I felt hurt when I touched a hot stove! 😢