Keys: I grew up with pimps, hookers and drug dealers

ALICIA KEYS always dresses down after growing up in the ‘porn capital’ of New York.

The Empire State of Mind singer regularly ran into ‘hookers, pimps and drug dealers’ in 42nd Street, and said: ‘A lot of my fashion and beauty sense comes from being exposed to the streets at a young age.’

The 39-year-old told Glamour magazine: ‘Walking by these places and knowing I had to interface with these people, I always had to be conscious about my toughness, my boundaries, my clothes... so I was always very pared down in what I wore.’

Read the full interview in the autumn/winter Glamour UK print issue, out now.