Alicia Keys says Jay-Z Didn't Like Her Hook for 'Empire State of Mind' at First

Alicia Keys admitted in her book that she felt manipulated by the now-cancelled photographer Terry Richardson when he coerced her to take a nearly topless photo 20 years ago.

The singer has made another admission since that information was revealed: That Jay-Z didn't like the first time she recorded the hook for their 2009 smash "Empire State of Mind."

Keys said that she was under the weather when it was recorded then. Plus, the singer was in Los Angeles, which she said wasn't the ideal place to record a song about the five boroughs. But Keys returned to New York at a later date and recorded the hook again.  [Jump to 2:32 mark].

"He hits me back like, 'Could you sing it again?' And I was like, 'What?'" Keys told Ebro in a FaceTime interview about Jay-Z. "I was a little tiny bit embarrassed, because who wants to send a song that, you know, then they friend is like, 'Hmmm.' He didn't want to tell me that either. But it kind of was necessary."

What do you think about Keys' story?