Alicia Keys sat down for a tete-a-tete with MTV’s Sway Calloway for the Elements of Freedom – The Lecture Performance Series at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts last night (October 21).

During the interview, Keys spoke about her creative process, what she learned from her favorite singer/songwriter, Linda Perry, and gave NYU students advice on how to apply zen philosophy to their college lives, among other things.

In one of the night’s most interesting moments, Keys revealed that despite the success of her last LP, "As I Am," she went through a rough period during which she realized that certain people close to her didn’t have her best interests at heart.

“I think that one thing that is certain about life is there’s gonna be transitions,” Keys told Sway. “There’s always something that's gonna happen in our life that forces you to grow, forcing us to go to a new place an a next level. And at first, it's crazy, it's scary… I had to find the snakes in the grass and pull them out. Some of them were friends of mine.”

“Getting through it was a process,” she continued. “I definitely knew that nothing could stop me. I just had to find he parts of me that needed to be changed and the parts around me that needed to be changed. When people pull you down, you gotta cut those ties.”

Sway then opened up the floor for members of the audience to ask questions. One student asked Keys if she had any advice on learning to write hit songs rather than good ones.

“I find that the best songs are not always more clever,” Keys explained. “They don't always have the best wordplay…It's the process of finding a truth. A good friend of mine said a good song is three chords and the truth. I try not to get into the hit thing too tough. I try to get into what feels right. Just go from the heart.”

The lecture concluded with Keys speaking on Stevie Wonder’s influence on her career.

“He taught me how to experiment, how to try things,” she offered. “He definitely showed me how to try, try to reach for the unbelievable.”

Following a brief opening set from her back up singer Jermaine Paul, Keys took to the stage to perform fan-favorites like “You Don’t Know My Name” and “Fallin’.”  She also performed “Doesn’t Mean Anything,” the first single off "Elements of Freedom" and introduced a new record off the album titled, “Try Sleepin’ With A Broken Heart” before closing off the evening with renditions of “If I Ain’t Got You” and “No One.”

Alicia Keys’ "Elements of Freedom" is scheduled to hit stores December 1.