I love to see women just have on their own, and you watch the guys do it all the time. They go out on the road with each other - probably don't even like each other, but they going to get that money.
I couldn't write because my nervous system was so bad - I couldn't even use a pen.
Before, you only had one Public Enemy and one Rakim and one Salt 'N' Pepa. Now, people have got the formula, and some of them are just doing it for the cheque. It's kind of watered down.
We're told that to be fly, you gotta have a fly car, the rims on your wheels, the fly jewels, and that to work a regular job and make legal money is uncool.
I don't want to get caught up and be an artist always on the go. Because once you do that, it's hard to get into the studio and do what I do.
I still represent for overweight adults and kids, but I am also now painfully and personally aware of the health issues.
I think it's hard for Aaliyah to be duplicated, because she had her own lane.
I think Aaliyah has influenced artists like a Ciara.
I felt like, 'How do I fit in'? I'm battling. But then I never fit in!'... I thank God for somebody like Pharrell who stayed in my ear. For him, at that time, 'Happy' was everywhere; he didn't have to share anything with me.
I didn't want to just be an artist and let someone else have all that control over me. I knew I would have to produce.
There's that saying: 'God gave you talent, and if you don't use it He'll take it away from you.' And I always said, 'I don't want God to come down and take my talents away.' So, by using all these talents and being successful in all of them, I've always got something to fall back on.
I guess my friends probably think I'm one of the lamest when it comes to doing stuff.
I'll stay in my house and watch 'Lockup,' the prison show.
When I'm in the studio, I like to be in there by myself because if I'm in the mike room, and I look out and see people talking, or they're not nodding their head or rocking to the music, it makes me feel like it don't sound good, or I'll be scared to really open up vocally because I might mess up, and they might be in there laughing.
The reason I stay home more is because I realise that my blood pressure started going up.
I've only ever had two vacations in my whole career, and I've been in the industry over twenty-something years!
I hear a lot of influence from me and Timbaland's whole sound in a lot of records of today. But if you have classics like that, then I'm sure you gotta expect that it's gonna influence some people. So, I'm fine with that.
Before Missy, there was no comparison to what Missy was doing.
When something is so hot, I don't want to just jump on it right away. I want to take it home and make sure I give it my best shot.
I never stopped recording, but I went through a period where... The one thing that a lot of people don't know is that for as long as I've been as artist, I've been a writer and a producer.
