I am an actress first, a singer second.

I don't take the English press seriously at all because all they want is dirt... I hate them.

I was the only black girl at my junior high school. I had an afro, a Jamaican accent, I looked really old.

I believe in individuality, that everybody is special, and it's up to them to find that quality and let it live.

I think I'm doing a service to black women by portraying myself as a sex machine. I mean, what's wrong with being a sex machine, darling? Sex is large, sex is life, sex is as large as life, so it appeals to anyone that's living, or rather it should.

My dad's family were political and he was always a theatrical creature, whereas my mum is really musical and her father was the touring pianist with Nat King Cole. My family was an explosive mixture of politics, religion and music - no wonder I turned out how I did.

Music has its own depths, and I let it take me where it takes me, even if it means stripping all my clothes off.