By the time I was a teenager, when I went outside the house, it was about hip-hop all the time. Nothing but hip-hop, block parties.
Working in the studio is a more personal experience whereas on stage in front of a billion people, its more exciting performing live.
It’s sad that a lot of identities are lost and a lot of careers are lost because there’s sort of a clone thing going on.
In the studio you can really concentrate on performing the song where as on stage you also have to worry about connecting with so many people, they’re definitely different.
I decided to start my own label because so many people with talent come to me wanting to know how they can get in the music business.
We are all just a work in progress.
The only person that I’m really feeling – because she has an identity of her own, even though she has listened to Mary J. Blige – is Jill Scott.
I believe there are certain things that God uses to get us out of a bad situation, and I believe music was one of the things he used for me.
I care about me now. When I didn’t care about me, I was, like, ‘Why is this going wrong? Why is my life so bad?’ But when you don’t care about yourself, nobody else is going to care about you. So I learned to love myself, even if nobody else does.
Then my life crashed and burned down: trials, men, drama, no self-love, no identity. A little identity, but not a lot of love for myself, my life.
The streets respect me because I kept it real with me. You gotta be real with yourself, and the streets recognize game.
Thank you so much for supporting me from the day I stepped foot into the music industry. It really means something to me to have Maya Angelou speak on my behalf. It also means a lot to have Oprah on my speed dial!
I’m a singer who thinks like a rapper.
No one intimidates me because I’m not trying to do what you do, because I can’t do what you do. I can only do what Mary J. Blige can do, so that relaxes me right there, and it gets me out of the competition and that whole thing.
I like to do interior design, I love to quilt, I love to see different colors together, and I love to match things up.
I like French fries; I like mashed. I love potatoes.
If we didn’t have understanding of our journey, we wouldn’t be able to go on. We’d be stuck, like, ‘Why me?’
When you’re going to do whatever you’re going to do, you have to get your, put your mind into it.
I’m hoping that my entrepreneurial side will have me at a place where I don’t have to do anything. That’s what I’m striving for.
You have to have a plan. Everything has to be planned. For me, I start with the title of my album, before I even start with the songs. I write down different things that I want album to say, and then the songs come from the different words.
The music business is really, really small. The real music is becoming almost extinct, if you don’t stay true to who you are.