When it came time to be a professional rapper, I wouldn't sign anything without reading it. There was no way I was going to have people make decisions for me or wake up one day and find that I was broke because I never bothered to read a contract.

Jumping off that cliff in Jamaica.It was years ago. It was at this place called Rick's Cafe. Actually, it was two cliffs. They were pretty high, probably a good 40- 50-foot jump into the ocean. That was crazy.

There are a lot of people who helped make Queen Latifah who she is today. I don't forget, but a lot of people do and get big heads.

There are different flavours of sexiness.

Lets be clear, Dolly Parton is a rapper. Somewhere before all the country, I don't know what happens up there in the mountains when you're growing up, but she has been spitting rhymes for a very long time - 50 years I'd say.

I lost relatives to AIDS, a couple of my closest cousins. I lost friends to AIDS, high-school friends who never even made it to their 21st birthdays in the '80s. When it's that close to you, you can't really deny it, and you can't run from it.

If you can draw something from my life that helps, more power to you.