It’s been 12 years since Lil Mama crashed the stage at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards during Alicia Keys and Jay-Z’s performance of “New York”, but now we have some details on what happened after that infamous moment.
“The truth of all the truth is, all I know is we was on that stage: Jay was here, I was here,” Keys said per Revolt motioning her hands to signal their positions on stage. “In my head, I was such a guerilla at the time, in my eyes, I was like ‘this is what’s happening. I’m gonna destroy this record tonight.’ That’s all I had in my head. Somehow, however she got over here, I didn’t even bear witness to. The whole show I was iced, so focused on making it amazing. I went backstage and Jay was like, ‘so, you ain’t see that?’ And I was like ‘what?’ He was like, ‘so you ain’t see what just happened?’ And I was like, ‘yeah, we killed it. That’s what just happened.”
“The truth of the truth!” 🤣😂
— N.O.R.E (@noreaga) December 8, 2021
We get the full inside story on when #LilMama crashed the stage during @AliciaKeys & #JayZ VMA performance on this week’s episode of @DrinkChamps 🤣
THURSDAY ON @RevoltTV
🍾🏆 @TheRealNoreaga @WhosCrazy #DrinkChamps pic.twitter.com/pUC3m8NpLw
Jay spoke about the incident in an interview shortly after the performance:
“Me personally, I would never do that. I would never have the nerve to do that. It’s just like, someone’s up there performing, we worked, we went to rehearsals, we did run-throughs. We worked really hard at the performance to put on a show for people and to interrupt that moment for us, I don’t think that was the right thing to do.”
He added: “I’m cool with her being excited and all that, I understand that. But you also have to understand that people put in work to make that performance happen.”
As to why Lil Mama crashed the stage, she spoke to MTV News shortly after and said that hearing Alicia and Jay perform “New York” got her emotional and just felt the energy.
“Well, I’m sitting in my seat, two rows away from the stage, and Jay-Z is walking through this tunnel, and there’s this whole adrenaline rush that’s just pumping, he comes onstage and he’s singing [she sings] ‘New Yorkkkk’. And you know, Alicia Keys is like [she sings again] ‘big lights will inspire you’ and really, I got emotional. I actually got emotional, and I was like, yeah! New York! Jay! And I started to feel him, started to feel myself, and I just felt the energy. And I got up and I started walking towards the stage, and I got up there, and I was just rooting him on, as a champion, picking up my brother.”
The full interview with Alicia Keys airs tonight (Dec. 9) on Revolt TV at 7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET and will be available on the Revolt YouTube channel on Saturday (Dec. 11).
Check out how Twitter is reliving the classic moment below:
