Alicia Keys Talks Growing Up

Fresh from a big night at the BET Awards, where she won Best Female R&B Artist, Alicia Keys recently revealed that her music focus was what saved her from falling into a bad crowd.

The “Put It In A Love Song” songstress grew up in a rough part of New York City, notoriously known as Hell’s Kitchen, and when somebody was shot right in front her, she decided to get out.

She told, “When I was about 13 or 14, I was in the street when someone got shot in a gang situation.”

“What was difficult was that in my group of friends, some went the way of gangs and drugs and others didn’t. You couldn’t blame those that did because we were surrounded by it. It was what they knew, all they knew,” she added.

Alicia –who in expecting her first child with fiancé Swizz Beatz- also revealed, “I was lucky that I had my mother, my grandmother and my music. I was a tough kid but I didn’t want that to be my future. It makes me sad to think that some of my friends had no escape.”