Alicia Keys Talks Lil Mama, Kanye West VMA Stage Invasions

Lil Mama said she realized Jay-Z wasn't feeling her stage crashing at this year's MTV Video Music

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Awards. Well, guess who else wasn't feeling that stage invasion? Alicia Keys. Keys appeared on the "Today" show on Wednesday (September 16), and when hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb asked about Mama, Keys initially declined to comment.

"I'd rather not speak about it," she said. "The performance was so phenomenal, it doesn't matter about anything else."

However, later in the interview the hosting duo coaxed a comment from Keys.

"We can appreciate her being overwhelmed and inspired," Keys said, "but we would have appreciated it if she would have did it from her seat."

But Keys had more positive things to say about the show-closing performance of "Empire State of Mind."

"It's phenomenal. Jay-Z and I both are native New Yorkers," the singer explained. "It's a classic New York song — new Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli. I don't know, it's a beautiful New York song, I love it. It's great to perform in New York and the VMAs were in L.A., now it's back and it's great to perform. The whole room was crazy."

The "Today" show hosts also asked Keys' opinions on Kanye West's upstaging of Taylor Swift.

"I think that obviously he knew that wasn't in the best taste, in retrospect, and I think he realized that wasn't quite the right thing to do," she offered.




This report is provided by MTV News