When I'm on stage, my interaction with the audience is something that really makes me come alive. It's a feeling like no other. The energy of the crowd fuels something new inside.

You just can't take a day for granted. We had to work really hard for anything, and so that's been instilled in me. And I don't look at myself as better than anybody else, because in an instant everything can change.

Sometimes I've gotten photographs back and people have literally shaven off pieces of me, and I tell them to put it back.

I've always expressed myself best through writing. I've gotten out all of my deepest feelings that way for as long as I can remember.

I acted before I sang. And I did The Cosby Show, and things like that. But the music kind of came first. And it was a part of my essence. So I knew that I would evolve into this world.

I think being really connected to a higher power, of having a spirituality to me, has been really good for me and I pray all the time.

When I was a kid I'd practise Chopin on piano - and I love Chopin! He's my dawg! Then I'd go out on the stoop and blast the radio. I'm from New York, the concrete jungle. Hip-hop influenced me from day one.