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.

Failure isn't an option. I've erased the word fear from my vocabulary and I think when you erase fear you can't fail.

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.

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 don't know if we tell women great news about themselves enough. You'd be surprised how often a young woman doesn't hear positive things about herself - not in her home, not at school. It's hard to create a beautiful image for yourself when you've never seen it or heard it.

When I was younger, studying classical music, I really had to put in the time. Three hours a day is not even nice - you have to put in six.

I think I grew up really fast; I grew up in this really fast-paced business, and I never understood what it meant to take a break or take time off or recover, and I paid for it.