Wheatgrass juice, kissing Batman, a shoe fetish and a pistol? We love this 37-year-old R&B enchantress’s music, but now we’re wondering...
Your self-portrait is full of patterns and symbols. Do they mean anything?
I'm a double Pisces, and they say we see things a little differently. We
see as if we're looking at things from under water. I just have a different
point of view.
And why did you draw a tuning fork?
To be in
tune with the frequency of the world, I use tuning forks in my music. Each one
has a certain vibration that relates to a color, scent and set of organs. You
can heal with tuning forks-I did it yesterday for somebody who had a cold.
That's a throat chakra issue, so it's A. You put the tone of A from the head to
the toe and it vibrates the mucus away.
Do you remember your first
experience with alcohol?
I was at Grambling State University, and the
fashion club had a little afterparty. They were playing a drinking game, I
messed up and I had to drink a shot of Everclear. Next thing I remember was
being back at my dorm on the bathroom floor. My girlfriends spent the night with
me, to make sure I was cool. They said I was singing. I didn't even know I was a
singer at that point.
So Everclear was the start of your career?
Yes. Everclear made everything clear.
Tell us about your
worst haircut.
I cut all my hair off in 1989. As it was growing out, I
put it into these little twists and I went to my grandma's house. She told me
she wasn't gonna let me in. "You look like rats have been sucking on your hair."
It's funny, my black grandmother doesn't really like anything black or African.
(laughs) If it doesn't look like "One Life To Live," she doesn't like it.
How many people have you truly loved?
I've always wanted the
best for the people in my life. Except for one person: Bombita. She was in the
fifth grade with me. And she can die.
What?
She was
mean. She used to step on my toes, anything to make me mad. I hope she's a
ghetto statistic. And if that keeps me out of Heaven, then so be it.
If we drug-tested you, what would we find?
Wheatgrass. Green
juice. Any kind of zionic bacteria, like chlorophyll and spirulina. I'm
drug-free, alcohol-free. Isn't that boring? Maybe I should be Kid Rock for a
day.
What would you do with that day?
If I was Kid Rock for
a day, I would go to the hood and talk shit, just to see what would happen. Talk
lots of shit and start some fights with some big black dudes.