R&B musicians Alicia Keys and Kasseem Daoud “Swizz Beatz” Dean have been married for thirteen years now and have welcomed two sons throughout their time together.
Having first met when they were teenagers living in New York City, Keys wasn’t initially sold on wanting to be with her future husband. In fact, she wanted little to do with him having not vibed with his character.
“We ended up in the same circles at various awards shows and industry events,” she wrote in her 2020 memoir, More Myself. “He’d usually pull up in some fancy car, rolling deep with his Bronx crew and shining with diamonds. I wanted nothing to do with that scene or with Swizz.”
It wasn’t until years later that they reconnected to collaborate on a music project that Keys was able to sit down and talk and pick his brain a bit, a brain that she appreciated and wanted to explore further.
“The more we talked the more I noticed how his mind worked,” she continued in her book. “Beyond the baggy jeans and arm tats there was depth. He was so aware of what was happening around the world.”
Two years later, just after being pregnant with their firstborn Egypt, they tied the knot. Four years later, they welcomed their second son, Genesis.
With the length of their history and having grown up in the same city, it’s no wonder that they’d without a doubt have each other’s back whenever someone or a group of someones would come after one of them.
That’s what happened in 2016.
Alicia Keys made the decision to ditch putting on make-up when she went out, simply because she didn’t feel like it and was tired of worrying about what people thought about her when they’d see her in public.
“Every time I left the house, I would be worried if I didn’t put on makeup: What if someone wanted a picture?? What if they POSTED it??? These were the insecure, superficial, but honest thoughts I was thinking,” she wrote in an essay for Lenny Letter at the time. “And all of it, one way or another, was based too much on what other people thought of me.”
Soon after the announcement, she attended the MTV Video Music Awards where she showed off her bare face; no make-up *gasp!*. As a result, Twitter and the media had a frenzy.
People took to their Twitter accounts to claim she was lying about not wearing make-up, others gave her a hard time because they thought she was “anti-make-up” and was trying to shame others for using it.
Keys tweeted a photo of her clarifying that she wasn’t against others wearing make-up and reassured everyone to do their own thing. But that wasn’t enough for the Twitterverse to accept.
Although she could handle herself, Keys’ husband felt like it was time he called out these people who are criticizing his wife.
Beatz posted a video to his Instagram of himself pointing out the fact that “somebody sitting home mad because somebody didn’t wear makeup on their face,” regarding the social media frenzy on Alicia’s new look.
“Not your face, but they didn’t put makeup on their face because they just didn’t feel like wearing makeup,” he continued. “But you mad because that person didn’t put on makeup to please you? Type of s–t is this? Cause you can do whatever you wanna do. She didn’t tell y’all don’t wear no makeup. She just said that she’s not vibin’ with the makeup all the way 100 percent like that. That’s kinda her thing that she wanna do.”
Despite being strong enough to speak for yourself, and sometimes not even feeling the need to address something so silly that’s being criticized about you, it’s nice to know that your partner has got your back. And that’s the kind of relationship Keys and Beatz have together and we love them for it.
Sources:
https://people.com/music/alicia-keys-swizz-beatz-relationship-timeline/
