- Hi, Kiki. Good to see you look amazing.
- Thanks love.
- And I have to say I started today by digging through
my DVD collection and I wanted to ask you,
could you have told this beautiful little girl
that she will be hosting the VMAs one day.
- Oh my gosh, babe. Thank you.
I would say to her, I don't know what I would say.
I would probably say, girl, keep being you
just never forget who you are.
You're gonna go through challenges,
but it's not because something's out to get you
or anything like that.
It's all meant to make you stronger
because what you're being prepared for is so much greater.
- Yes, it is. And you have been doing great things.
I have to say this year at the VMAs
is gonna be out of control.
BTS is performing Ariana Grande and Gaga linking up.
How do you prepare for such a big show?
- Yeah, I looked at Kevin Hart. I looked at,
I did like try to look at some openers,
but it was actually hard to actually find
it wasn't as easy to find as I expected it to be.
But how I prepare, I mean,
it's different to this year because I mean,
2020 is like the loopholes and all this,
the different things that hoops that we're jumping through
in order to make this happen,
I've literally taken like over 10 COVID tests.
- Wow.
- So we're making everybody stays safe.
My rehearsals are like all over Zoom.
- Well, I have to ask you, because you said 10 COVID tests.
Is your nose okay?
- Yeah.
Yeah, they do the throat too now,
they do the throat too now because it's so funny,
people have actually had their problem,
like have had nosebleeds because of how many COVIDs
now that's a part of our world.
It's like, if you wanna do something or, you know,
it's like, it's the reality of it.
- Yeah, absolutely.
And of course the VMAs have so many iconic memories.
We grew up watching this show.
What's one of your favorite VMA performances or moments?
- I think, you know, when Beyonce announced
that she was pregnant, that was very,
I remember being just completely and utterly gagged by that.
That was definitely gag worthy.
That was like, you know, cause you would usually hear it
in this happened and you're like, Oh, is it true?
And she was like, whew,
that was definitely like a gag moment.
- No. And I think that was incredible too,
because I remember like she had been singing
and performing that whole thing.
And then you're like, wait, what? And she's pregnant.
Girl.
- It was just too much to bear.
- It was a lot. It was a lot. No.
And we gotta talk about your music,
Virgo Tendencies coming out,
girl Thick is a bop and you know, I am ready.
So tell me what you want. Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey.
♪ Love it when I'm gettin thick ♪
♪ Love it love it when I'm ♪
- So what do you want to say to the industry and your fans
with this project.
- Oh, that we're doing us period. I mean, for me,
this is created out of the spirit of where I wanted
to be during the beginning of, you know,
all this COVID stuff and just 2020 kind of just,
you know, showing that it was not going to be.
That it's going to be a life changing year.
So for me, it's in the spirit of being lighthearted.
It's an escapism and that's what it is.
It's this energy that I package
that I really want to give out to my audience
to hopefully help them be able to kind of
balance some of the stresses of the realities
we're experiencing right now.
- Oh, absolutely. And you are such a voice
for the community for so many social justice issues
and everything that's been going on.
How do you balance having that big platform
and releasing music and doing it all at the same time?
- Yeah, I really do. Just try to be true to myself.
Like anything that, new that happens like in terms of
when you talk about the social justice, you know,
my version of my activism is through my work.
That's ultimately, you know, through entertainment,
I wouldn't call myself an activist or something like this,
but when moments like that happen,
that just happens to be because of social media
and the fact that people have phones and
can take pictures of cameras.
It just happened to happen that way.
At the end of the day,
I was just being a normal everyday person.
Like many of those people out there,
I just happened to be somebody that people recognize.
Life is changing. The world is changing.
Everything is, you know, it's not gonna be the same forever.
- Well, it's not gonna be the same,
but we are expecting a great show from you at the VMAs.
I personally can't wait to see what you're gonna bring
to the table.
Can't wait for the world to hear your new project and EP.
So thank you so much for speaking with us today.
I really do appreciate it Keke.
- Aww, thank you so much.
- And also, don't think I didn't see your tweet
about a millennial, The View.
So imma have your people call my people so we can...
- So we can get into it.
Thank you so much Keke.
- Thank you. Thank you. Take care Tetris.