Well, when you think music-wise, and if you hang with me or you see me or whatever, the average person will be like 'oh yeah, she probably raps'. This is that stereotype and then I do what I do, so they're more like 'oh, I wasn't expecting this whatsoever'. This especially links with the idea of being a woman in this kind of work and within the footwork genre.

I suppose I like to give people something to talk and think about. I can just be the person that kind of put a message in the bottle to see where it ends up.

I love to be challenged. I like to be in places where I don't have easy ways out; it's either I do it or I don't and, in my mind, I don't really have the option of don't.

If you create something, it really should mean something more than that to you. I had to grow into all of this though, through a learning process. I didn't wake up one day and just say, 'Yeah, that's Jlin, there it is'. That's why I said it took my entire life to make this album and it comes back to having that comfort zone - if you don't have one, the more progress you make and the more creative you become over time.

Happy is already a state, so if you create something that's happy... OK, wonderful... but when you're in a place of distress or trauma, there are so many more directions that can go in to me. Something that's happy can only truly go in one direction, whereas with something like distress, anger, trauma, there are so many more interesting possibilities that those emotions can create.

It's like, say you're a dancer and you've been studying modern dance your whole life so you're used to a certain aesthetic of music or motivation or influence, if I send you something that you're totally not used to or don't understand, rarely does that work. On the average, you're not gonna feel that and it won't be you. You have to be in there.

Every artist, to me, should know why they're doing what they're doing. You shouldn't create simply because it sounds good to you. That's not a real response to me.