Last week, Alicia Keys embarked on her college lecture series titled “The Element of Freedom” and her first stop was NYU’s Skirball’s Center for the Performing Arts where she spoke to an auditorium full of eager college students.

“I’m loving this tonight [that] we’re here at NYU. I’ve always, always, always wanted to come to colleges. … These are some very creative young people out there, and I want to reach out to them and share some of my story and hear some of their questions and really be able to start a dialogue.”

The Grammy Award-winning songstress also made it clear to students that to achieve success they must “put in the work”.

“No matter where you’re from, you gotta put in the work. I’ve really learned a balance between creativity and play and working and experiencing. Adding, “Before I used to kind of just totally lock myself in a room and create for like months on end thinking that was the best way to create music. But now I’ve really learned a balance between creativity and play and working and experiencing, and it’s really made the process of creating this record a lot more pleasurable.”

Peep the beautiful and talented Alicia Keys on the cover of Uptown magazine’s Holiday issue below.

Alicia’s really going in with the promo! Me likey…

]]> http://str8nyc.com/2009/11/11/alicia-keys-tells-nyu-students-to-put-in-work/feed/ 0 http://str8nyc.com/2009/11/04/mag-swag-rihanna-is-glamour-magazines-woman-of-the-year/ http://str8nyc.com/2009/11/04/mag-swag-rihanna-is-glamour-magazines-woman-of-the-year/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:11:20 +0000 J'More http://str8nyc.com/?p=27439 MAG SWAG: RIHANNA IS GLAMOUR MAGAZINE’S “WOMAN OF THE YEAR”

Rihanna is actually one of Glamour Magazine’s “Women of the Year”, the Bajan beauty shares the title with First Lady Michelle Obama, Serena Williams, and other powerful women in the publication’s December 2009 issue. Glamour snagged an in depth interview with The Good Girl Gone Bad in which she touched on her beatdown drama with ex-boo Chris Brown for the first time in detail, her style, her success and how she poured all of her emotion into her upcoming albu, “Rated R”. Check out these interesting excerpts:

“My story was broadcast all over the world for people to see, and they have followed every step of my recovery. The positive thing that has come out of my situation is that people can learn from that. I want to give as much insight as I can to young women, because I feel like I represent a voice that really isn’t heard. Now I can help speak for those women.”

Rihanna also took a moment to reflect on a bit of advice mentor Jay-Z gave her about the challenge of getting people to relate to her as simply a human being.

“Before, there was innocence to me. It was a perfect image. So the minute I did something imperfect, it was a big deal. I think that’s what he was referring to: People forget that after we get to our hotel rooms at night, we take a shower, we watch TV, eat room service and do normal things. Behind it all, we are still human beings.”

So eight months after Chris Brown whooped her ass she decides to finally break her silence?! I’m not buying it one bit! Realtalk, this comes off as a PR Stunt to me because this is definitely perfect timing…her album is scheduled to drop any day now. I guess RiRi’s team is equating sympathy with dollar signs.

LexAve: Here’s some footage from the Glamour photoshoot…too cute!

Since returning to the single life, Combs has been linked to actress Sienna Miller and, more recently, pop star Cassie, with whom he arrived at BlackBook’s photo shoot. Are those rumors true? “Am I dating? Let’s see… Am I going out on dates?” says Combs, who turns 40 next month. “Right now, to be honest, I’m just chilling.” A playful grin builds across his face. Discretion from the man who once promised that he could “make love all night, bending bed coils”? It’s a far cry from his unapologtic playboy past, of which he’s regaled journalists with pull quotes about threesomes and more-somes. “I guess the things that used to thrill me don’t thrill me so much anymore. Intimacy,” he adds, “is more important to me than sleeping with hot chicks. I don’t even know if I really savored every ménage a trois I had. I don’t want to do it all over again, but if I have any more, I’ll take extra time.”

POP HOOD FOR MORE PICS…