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I was never an R&B artist. People coined me one, but that's because, especially if you're in the States, if you're black and you sing, then you're R&B.

Am I R&B because I'm black? Am I pop because I have a song called 'Milkshake'? Or can I just be who the hell I am? Good Lord, people make it seem like we're doing heart transplants here, but we're just making music!

There are so many people who have this idea of who I am because I'm black.

It's unfortunate that a lot of people think African-American female artists are monolithically R&B this-or-that, don't have to do anything by default.

Did people think I sounded black? Totally, but that was a marketing tool as well, but also this is how I grew up and these are my influences.

I'm black because that's the way the world sees me.

I mean, there's plenty of artists who are making R&B music, but because of their ethnicity, it's considered something else.

Being a black artist, the first thing people want to talk about is your blackness, the importance of your blackness, and your black presence.

My style is black. It's hip-hop. It's who I am.