14 DAY TRIAL // The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards came with many surprises, from the heartfelt speech Madonna gave in honor of Michael Jackson, to Janet Jackson’s tribute to her late brother and, of course, the new, extended trailer for “New Moon,” but it also had its “off” moments. One of them was Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift’s speech, while the other almost went by unnoticed, with Lil Mama jumping on stage at the end of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ performance.
For all that matters, Lil Mama is sorry for pulling a “mini-Kanye,” as her gesture has been described in the media. What happened was that, towards the end of “Empire State of Mind,” Jay-Z and Alicia were joined on stage by Lil Mama, who clearly had no reason to be up there, as Jay-Z’s reaction clearly shows. The rapper refuses to put his microphone down and he can even be heard muttering something like “You’re T-Paining right now!” as Lil Mama continues to awkwardly try to fit in.
Reports in the media say Jay-Z may have been referring to his June performance at the Summer Jam in New Jersey, when T-Pain also took to the stage unannounced as Jay-Z was performing “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune).” Nevertheless, as EW also points out, this time with Lil Mama, Jay-Z doesn’t lose his cool: he just pretends she’s not even there and continues the duet with Alicia Keys undisturbed, although just a bit visibly upset.
Lil Mama, on the other hand, almost immediately apologized for the interruption, saying she only meant to show her respect for the two stars by it. “I did not mean any disrespect towards Jay-Z or Alicia Keys. I admire them and look up to them as role models. ‘Empire State of Mind’ had my emotions running high. In that moment I came up onstage to celebrate my two icons singing about NY.” she told the media shortly afterwards – Jay-Z and Alicia’s duet was the closing act.
See Jay-Z and Keys’ stunning tribute to New York at the VMAs below, as well as Lil Mama’s brief interruption (starts at about the 5.04-minute mark).
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