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There's still not as many women in music as men, and I don't really know why. I don't have the answers. I do wish there were more women that played music.

The music I heard growing up, since there was no TV or cinema or record covers, I didn't know if it was black, white, hip, square, male, female... whatever. I'd hear melodies and things and got intrigued on that level.

My music was never considered cool, but I've always felt that connection with the audience.

It was 100 percent music. There was no ego involved, no attitudes, no black and white, it was pure music.

When I was young, people were almost identified solely by the kind of music they liked. People fell into categories of who liked what.

I see myself as a hip-hop artist, but I never wanted to make music for a specifically white audience. That's not what I grew up around.

I came up during that time when music, to me, was really music. It wasn't about talking about a woman and calling them a derogatory name or something like that. It was real music.

White people couldn't do black music back in the day because they weren't funky or bad enough. They weren't from the ghettoes, but hip-hop and R&B changed all of that because white kids want to be down with it. They wanted to learn it so they studied the culture. It's kind of a cool thing because we shouldn't be so separate.

Music has no race. It appeals to everybody.