When I heard Aretha, I could feel her emotional delivery so clearly. It came from down deep within. That's what I wanted to do.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
If you think about it, Aretha did basically the same things that I do.
The voice of God, if you must know, is Aretha Franklin's.
Aretha Franklin was a teenage mom, a musician who came from an incredibly Christian background, but there was a lot of love, which is really inspiring in a feminist way.
That's where it begins and ends for me and these songs were the ones that touched me the deepest. It was like I was laying hold of some part of me that I didn't even know was there until I let it out.
I was determined to create my own identity. My first hits, in fact, were straight-up rhythm and blues. My voice was compared to Aretha Franklin's - though, for my money, no one compares to Aretha.
I've been getting into different gospel artists; Aretha Franklin is someone I've been listening to a lot of.
When you raise your voice in song to express what's going on deep inside of you, I think people just react to that because it's so truthful. It's so raw.
Aretha Franklin's 'Let Me in Your Life' is one of the few recent R&B albums that places the emphasis entirely and deservedly on a voice. Many R&B producers have been making records on which the singer is outshined by the song, the arrangement and the sound.
When I first met Aaliyah - it time for the world to hear this, I'm gonna give a little secret - I was in love with her.
Don't say Aretha is making a comeback, because I've never been away!