I decided early on that I was going to put on my crown and rule my world by acting right and treating myself like a queen.
How many crossroads are you allowed to have in life? I seem to have a lot of crossroads. I think maybe I crossed back across the same road too often.
For myself music definitely informs my emotions. And I can literally play a song that will get me where I need to be emotionally. I don’t have to think about the tragic things that happened in my life or the greatest things that happened in my life.
People say I’m going to be the next Oprah. But I say no, because Oprah is still Oprah. I’ll be the next me. I feel like there’s always a lane for me as long as I’m true to myself.
I don’t care how much money you have, free stuff is always a good thing.
You can huff and puff. But blow me down? I doubt it kid, or you get your ass whupped.
There’s no way I can represent for everyone. I can’t represent for all women or all big women or all black women. It’s important for people not to make celebrities their source of who they should be in life. I can’t take on the pressure of being perfect. Nobody is.
There were musicians that influenced me, but they weren’t all women. Teena Marie was a big influence because she wrote and produced her own music, which let me know that women could write and produce their own music, which was an empowering moment for me.
I’m the daughter of a sister whose the mother of a brother who’s the brother of another.
There was always music in our home. My mom and my dad loved music. I remember when we were kids we would have these great parties at the house with congas and bongos and African drums, and it was amazing. It wasn’t until years later that I found out that they were actually Black Panther meetings.
My mother wouldn’t allow me to speak slang when I was growing up. But when I got outside, around my friends, it was ‘Yo’ and ‘That’s the joint’ and ‘Yo, what’s up?’ So I had my game for my friends and my game for my mom.
I’m a sucker for a man who cries. It just gets to me.
I’m not the type that’s going to sit and preach to people if they don’t need it just because I’ve been around the block a few times.
I’ve never wanted to be put into a box, not musically.
So often, you don’t get that opportunity. You only go over everything once and, the next thing you know, you’re on set.
If you try to follow everyone else’s mold, you’ll probably fail at some point because God created us uniquely for a reason.
Most people don’t have so much talent that they can become a success all their own. We all need people to help us and lift us up.
My house borders horse farms, and I can look out my window and see the horses and the new colts. It’s really peaceful.
My mom will make me walk the dogs or take out the trash when I go home.
The movie I’ve seen a million times is ‘Steel Magnolias,’ directed by Herbert Ross, starring Sally Field and Julia Roberts.