ROC4LIFE

Alicia Keys looks is on the cover of Complex magazine! The release coincides with her new Girl On Fire album which drops this month and is accompanied by a great fashion spread.

Draped in angelic whites for the cover story, she chats about her new single, being guarded and naming her son Egypt. Check out some pics and excerpts below.

On Her Song ‘Brand New Me’
“Don’t be mad that I’m different,” Alicia explains about the song. “Don’t be mad that I’m changed. Don’t be mad that I’m grown. You can’t affect me the way you once did. You can’t be mad. Like, how could you be mad?”

“My favorite part of that song is the bridge. The bridge says, ‘If you were a friend, you’d want to get to know me again/If you were worth the while, you’d be happy to see me smile/I’m not expectin’ sorry. I’m too busy finding myself.’ All of us have had that type of realization: ‘You don’t control me. You might have at one time, but you don’t anymore.’ I love that song so much. It’s so freaking real.”

On Being Guarded
“I mean, what the hell?  The whole freaking world is looking at your s–t. It’s scary. I didn’t want to say every single thing because you don’t want people to know that. There’s personal and there’s public, and I deserve the right to have a personal space.”

On Naming Her Son Egypt
“I took an important trip for myself to Egypt. There were a lot of things that needed to change. I was not as experienced then, so I felt close to a breakdown. I went to Egypt, and I went alone. I sailed down the Nile and I saw the temples, the tombs, and the pyramids. It was powerful.” She adds with a laugh, “It was very Cleopatra.”

When we found out I was pregnant, my husband said, ‘Egypt was such an important time for you. That really changed your life.’ Wouldn’t that be amazing as a name?’ Once he said that, I was like, ‘Yes.’

More over at Complex

— Rae Holliday>