R&B singer Alicia Keys graces the cover of Complex Magazine November/December 2012 issue. And during a sit down with the magazine, Keys talked about motherhood changing her life, not getting too personal with her songwriting, while denying she was the main cause of Mashonda and Swizz Beatz's divorce. 

Here's the highlights:

On motherhood:

Motherhood was a big part of me breaking free. Before I gave birth to Egypt, there was a certain energy of wanting to fix things. Women want to clean stuff up before the baby comes. I refused to be in any circumstance that would give negative energy to this. That was what pushed me over the edge. It was becoming a woman. I was a girl, and now I’m a woman.

On working with Frank Ocean: 

That was super brave and I’m so glad that he wrote it. He is the voice for so many people. We’re all boxed in to these stupid things that we’re taught is the way we’re supposed to be and it’s so ridiculous. There are so many people that need a champion to assure them that no matter who you are, you are a beautiful person. That doesn’t change the fact that you’re talented or intelligent. Thank God that we have come to this place where we can actually know and be more open to the fact that people come in all different ways. And that’s great because it’s a very boring world otherwise.

On not getting too personal with her songwriting:

The whole freaking world is looking at your shit. 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.

In 2009, Alicia was on the receiving end of bad publicity. Everyone knows by now that her husband was married to another woman—the R&B singer Mashonda, with whom he had a son—when they first met; a fact for which she makes no apologies. And why should she?

Alicia maintains that she and Swizz did not get involved until he and Mashonda were separated. She was subjected to gossip items and negativity, but Alicia held her tongue and avoided a public back-and-forth. Such are the sparks that can set a girl on fire.

On her "Girl On Fire" album:

“It’s not a departure,” she says. “It’s growth. I love the way that I’ve been able to go deeper into my lyrics and my songwriting and go to a place I was too afraid to access before.”

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