Born Alicia Cook, the singer-songwriter grew up working-class in New York City. Her parents, Terria Joseph, who is white, and Craig Cook, who is black, split when she was a toddler, and she was raised by her mom, a retired paralegal and part-time actress. A classically trained pianist who began playing at age 7, Keys was smitten with the city's downtown hip-hop scene. ''In the early '90s, you could find artists in ciphers [street-corner rap battles] at Washington Square Park,'' says Brothers, 36, who was then an aspiring rapper. ''She was one of the people I had a good vibe with. The police would always break up the ciphers. So I'm like, 'Hey, we could have the cipher back at my place. I got a four-track, drum machines...' As time went by, we started doing music together.''
Keys was always studious and a perfectionist. She skipped first grade, combined 11th and 12th grades, and graduated from New York's Professional Performing Arts School at age 16. In 1997, she enrolled at Columbia University but dropped out after a semester to sign with Columbia Records. Three years later, the label shelved her project, but in 2001, J Records finally released her debut, Songs in A Minor. The soulful CD was an instant smash.
Yet, almost immediately, Keys developed a reputation for being an enigmatic introvert. ''Ever since I was little, I always felt like if people knew about me, they'd be able to use it against me,'' Keys explains. ''I've just always been like, If you don't know about me, there's nothing you can say to destroy or hurt me. So, moving into a career where people are always prying, my instinct has always been to close up.''
Even her look was a kind of shield. ''When we would walk down the street and she would get whistled at by men, she would get so bothered,'' says Erika Rose, Keys' longtime best friend. (Rose, also Keys' former personal assistant and manager, co-wrote ''A Woman's Worth'' from Songs, along with three tracks on 2003's The Diary of Alicia Keys.) ''She forced herself into wearing baggy clothes and putting her hair in a bun. She would dress almost to be unattractive.'' Keys' tomboyish style did little to quell a persistent rumor that she's gay, which she has repeatedly denied, in magazines from People to Ebony. ''She understands why people might've thought that,'' Rose says. ''She was a little rough around the edges with her Timberlands and jeans and braids and rough talk.'' But Brothers is an undeniable presence. ''Clearly,'' says Rose, ''she has a man in her life.''
NEXT PAGE: ''I was like, 'I need you to help me. I need to get out of here,''' she says. ''It was the most panicked, most desperate thing I've ever done, probably, in my whole life.''
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