Editing Alicia Keys (section)

===1985–1997===
In 1985, at the age of four, Keys made her acting debut, appearing  on ''[[The Cosby Show]]'' as Maria, one of Rudy's slumber-party friends.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=Russell |title=Alicia Keys |date=3 February 2015 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4222-9099-6 |page=44 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EHKZBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT44 |language=en |access-date=June 6, 2024 |archive-date=June 6, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240606115829/https://books.google.com/books?id=EHKZBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT44 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1994, manager Jeff Robinson met 13-year-old Keys, who participated in his brother's youth organization called Teens in Motion.<ref name="Cole"/><ref name="crain">{{cite web|url=http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/40under40/profiles/2003/32 |title=Crain's 40 Under 40 Alumni|work=[[Crain's New York Business]]|year=2003|access-date=May 30, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080808134712/http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/40under40/profiles/2003/32|archive-date=August 8, 2008|first=Valerie|last=Block}}</ref> Robinson's brother had been giving Keys vocal lessons in [[Harlem]].<ref name="Roberts"/> His brother had talked to him about Keys and advised him to go see her, but Robinson shrugged it off as he had "heard that story 1,000 times". At the time, Keys was part of a three-member band that had formed in the [[Bronx]] and was performing in Harlem.<ref name="Cole"/><ref name="boom"/> Robinson eventually agreed to his brother's request, and went to see Keys perform with her group at the [[Police Athletic League of New York City|Police Athletic League]] center in Harlem. He was soon taken by Keys, her soulful singing, playing contemporary and [[classical music]] and performing her own songs.<ref name="Cole"/><ref name="Toure"/> Robinson was excited by audiences' reactions to her. Impressed by her talents, charisma, image, and maturity, Robinson considered her to be the "total package", and took her under his wing.<ref name="Pareles"/><ref name="boom"/><ref name="crain"/> By this time, Keys had already written two of the songs that she would later include on her debut album: "Butterflyz" and "The Life".<ref name="Pareles"/><ref name="boom"/>

Robinson wanted Keys to be informed and prepared for the music industry, so he took her everywhere with him, including all the meetings with attorneys and negotiations with record labels, while the teenager often became disgruntled with the process.<ref name="Cole"/> Robinson had urged Keys to pursue a solo career, as she remained reluctant, preferring the musical interactions of a group. She took Robinson's advice after her group disbanded, and contacted Robinson who in 1995 introduced her to [[A&R]] executive [[Peter Edge]].

Robinson and Edge helped Keys assemble some demos of songs she had written and set up a showcases for label executives.<ref name="Merritt"/><ref name="Cole"/><ref name="Toure"/> Keys performed on the piano for executives of various labels, and a bidding war ensued.<ref name="Oprah"/><ref name="Toure"/> Edge was keen to sign Keys himself but was unable to do so at that time due to being on the verge of leaving his present record company, [[Warner Bros. Records]], to work at [[Clive Davis]]' [[Arista Records]].<ref name="Oprah"/><ref name="Cole"/><ref name="hitquarters">{{cite web|title=Interview with Peter Edge|url=http://www.hitquarters.com/index.php3?page=intrview/2004/October13_2_39_1.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226031139/http://www.hitquarters.com/index.php3?page=intrview%2F2004%2FOctober13_2_39_1.html|archive-date=February 26, 2012|date=October 13, 2004|publisher=[[HitQuarters]]|access-date=May 30, 2018|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref> During this period, [[Columbia Records]] had approached Keys for a record deal, offering her a $26,000 white baby grand piano; after negotiations with her and her manager, she signed to the label, at age 15. Keys was also finishing high school, and her academic success had provided her opportunity for scholarship and early admission to university.<ref name="Oprah"/><ref name="Cole">{{cite magazine|last=Cole|first=Harriette|title=Alicia Bares Her Soul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bNMDAAAAMBAJ|access-date=May 30, 2018|magazine=[[Ebony (magazine)|Ebony]]|date=November 2007|volume=63|issue=1|issn=0012-9011|archive-date=October 26, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231026071529/https://books.google.com/books?id=bNMDAAAAMBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="hitquarters"/> That year, Keys accepted a scholarship to study at [[Columbia University]] in Manhattan.<ref name="Merritt"/> She graduated from high school early as [[valedictorian]], at the age of 16, and began attending Columbia University at that age while working on her music.<ref name="Oprah"/><ref name="Pareles">{{cite web|last=Pareles|first=Jon|date=January 27, 2002|title=Music; To Be Alicia Keys: Young, Gifted and in Control|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/27/arts/music-to-be-alicia-keys-young-gifted-and-in-control.html|pages=1–3|access-date=May 30, 2018|archive-date=April 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407213538/https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/27/arts/music-to-be-alicia-keys-young-gifted-and-in-control.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Keys attempted to manage a difficult schedule between university and working in the studio into the morning, compounding stress and a distant relationship with her mother. She often stayed away from home, and wrote some of the most "depressing" poems of her life during this period. Keys decided to drop out of college after a month to pursue music full-time.<ref name="Merritt"/><ref name="Jet 01"/><ref name="Pareles"/>

[[Columbia Records]] had recruited a team of songwriters, producers and stylists to work on Keys and her music. They wanted Keys to submit to their creative and image decisions.<ref name="Merritt"/> Keys said they were not receptive to her contributions and being a musician and music creator.<ref name="Pareles"/><ref name="NPR"/> While Keys worked on her songs, Columbia executives attempted to change her material; they wanted her to sing and have others create the music, forcing big-name producers on her who demanded she also write with people with whom she was not comfortable.<ref name="Guardian 01"/><ref name="Roberts"/> She would go into sessions already prepared with music she had composed, but the label would dismiss her work in favor of their vision.<ref name="NPR"/> "It was a constant battle, it was a lot of -isms", Keys recalled. "There was the sexism, but it was more the ageism – you're too young, how could you possibly know what you want to do? – and oh God, that just irked me to death, I hated that."<ref name="Merritt"/> "The music coming out was very disappointing", she recalled. "You have this desire to have something good, and you have thoughts and ideas, but when you finish the music it's shit, and it keeps on going like that."<ref name="Toure"/> Keys would be in "perpetual music industry purgatory" under Columbia, while they ultimately "relegated [her] to the shelf".<ref name="boom"/> She had performed "Little Drummer Girl" for [[So So Def]]'s [[12 Soulful Nights of Christmas|Christmas compilation]] in 1996,<ref name="boom"/> and later co-wrote the song "Dah Dee Dah (Sexy Thing)" for the ''[[Men in Black (1997 film)|Men in Black]]'' (1997) [[Men in Black: The Album|film soundtrack]], the only released recording Keys made with Columbia.<ref name="Jet 01"/><ref name="Roberts"/>

Keys "hated" the experience of writing with the people Columbia brought in. "I remember driving to the studio one day with dread in my chest," she recalled.<ref name="Oprah"/> Keys said the producers would also sexually proposition her.<ref name="Guardian 01"/><ref name="WeinerUnlocked"/><ref name="Pareles"/> "It's all over the place. And it's crazy. And it's very difficult to understand and handle," she said.<ref name="Pareles"/> Keys had already built a "protect yourself" mentality from growing up in Hell's Kitchen, which served her as a young teen then in the industry having to rebuff the advances of producers and being around people who "just wanted to use [her]".<ref name="WeinerUnlocked"/><ref name="Calloway"/> Keys felt like she could not show weakness.<ref name="WeinerUnlocked"/> Executives at Columbia also wanted to manufacture her image, with her "hair blown out and flowing", short dresses, and asking her to lose weight; "they wanted me to be the same as everyone else," Keys felt.<ref name="Oprah"/> "I had horrible experiences," she recalled. "They were so disrespectful&nbsp;... I started figuring, 'Hey, nothing's worth all this.'"<ref name="Guardian 01"/> As months passed, Keys had grown more frustrated and depressed with the situation, while the label requested the finished tracks.<ref name="Oprah"/><ref name="Toure"/><ref name="Pareles"/> Keys recalled, "it was around that time that I realized that I couldn't do it with other people. I had to do it more with myself, with the people that I felt comfortable with or by myself with my piano."<ref name="Pareles"/> Keys decided to sit in with some producers and engineers to ask questions and watch them technically work on other artists' music.<ref name="Toure"/> "The only way it would sound like anything I would be remotely proud of is if I did it," Keys determined. "I already knew my way around the keyboard, so that was an advantage. And the rest was watching people work on other artists and watching how they layer things."<ref name="Toure"/>

Her partner [[Kerry Brothers, Jr.|Kerry "Krucial" Brothers]] suggested to Keys she buy her own equipment and record on her own.<ref name="Pareles"/> Keys began working separately from the label, exploring more production and engineering on her own with her own equipment.<ref name="Toure"/> She had moved out of her mother's apartment and into a sixth-floor [[Apartment#United States|walk-up]] apartment in Harlem with Brothers, where she fit a recording studio into their bedroom and worked on her music.<ref name="Pareles"/> Keys felt being on her own was "necessary" for her sanity. She was "going through a lot" with herself and with her mother, and she "needed the space"; "I needed to have my own thoughts, to do my own thing."<ref name="Toure"/> Keys and Brothers later moved to [[Queens]] and together they turned the basement into KrucialKeys Studios.<ref name="Pareles"/> Keys would return to her mother's house periodically, particularly when she felt "lost or unbalanced or alone". "She would probably be working and I would sit at the piano," she reminisced.<ref name="Pareles"/> During this time, she composed the song "Troubles", which started as "a conversation with God", working on it further in Harlem. Around this time the album "started coming together", and she composed and recorded most of the songs that would appear on her album.<ref name="Sullivan"/><ref name="Toure"/><ref name="Pareles"/> "Finally, I knew how to structure my feelings into something that made sense, something that can translate to people", Keys. "That was a changing point. My confidence was up, way up."<ref name="Toure"/> The different experience reinvigorated Keys and her music.<ref name="Pareles"/> While the album was nearly completed, Columbia's management changed and more creative differences emerged with the new executives. Keys brought her songs to the executives, who rejected her work, saying it "sounded like one long demo". They wanted Keys to sing over loops,<ref name="Toure"/> and told Keys they will bring in a "top" team and get her "a more radio-friendly sound". Keys would not allow it; "they already had set the monster loose", she recalled. "Once I started producing my own stuff there wasn't any going back."<ref name="Pareles"/> Keys stated that Columbia had the "wrong vision" for her. "They didn't want me to be an individual, didn't really care," Keys concluded. "They just wanted to put me in a box."<ref name="Guardian 01"/> Control over her creative process was "everything" to Keys.<ref name="NPR"/>

Keys had wanted to leave Columbia since they began "completely disrespecting [her] musical creativity".<ref name="Oprah"/> Leaving Columbia was "a hell of a fight," she recalled. "Out of spite, they were threatening to keep everything I'd created even though they hated it. I thought I'd have to start over again just to get out, but I didn't care."<ref name="Oprah"/> Keys said in 2001: "It's been one trial, one test of confidence and faith after the next." To Keys, "success doesn't just mean that I'm the singer, and you give me my 14 points, and that's all. That's not how it's going to go down."<ref name="Angelo">{{cite magazine|title=The Maestro|magazine=[[Vibe (magazine)|Vibe]]|first=Angelo|last=Ragaza|date=October 2001|page=98|volume=9|issue=10|issn=1070-4701|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2SUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA98}}</ref> Edge, who was by that time head of A&R at Arista Records,<ref name="Merritt"/> said, "I didn't see that there was much hands-on development at Columbia, and she was smart enough to figure that out and to ask to be released from her contract, which was a bold move for a new artist."<ref name="Pareles"/> Edge introduced Keys to Arista's then-president, Clive Davis, in 1998.<ref name="Merritt"/><ref name="Hillburn"/>