Songwriting was always my 'plan B'. I didn't even know that songwriting was a job until my late teens!
— Keri Hilson
Timbaland's so wishy-washy sometimes - he'll hate a song at first and then love it, and then maybe go back to not liking it as much as something else.
I don't have a beef with any female artist.
I'm born and raised in Georgia, so I have a lot of appreciation for hip-hop, but I want to be able to show the emotional side of me.
It's not okay to just make up false things about someone, especially in their personal life. Professionally, fine! Scrutinize me all you want. I know that I can't please everyone, but personally, let's just leave it alone. It's going too far.
I've learned to duplicate my beauty regimen from drug store products.
Really, I'm the type of girl, and I know other girls who are the types of girls who it's not about the chain, it's not about the car, not about the house or this, that, and the other that you think are impressing me. It's really the intellect. It's really stimulating my mind.
I always feel compelled to lend my voice to things I strongly believe in.
I grew up in an all-black neighbourhood in Decatur, Georgia - a kinda lower-middle-class area.
Even if you're walking through the airport or going to pick up your mail, if you meet a fan and they have a camera, they will take a picture of you and millions could potentially see that picture - if it's picked up by a blog or whatever.
When I'm writing a song for another artist, I purposefully make it not for me; otherwise, I get too attached.
There have been situations where the people you're around have one vision for you, and it's like trying on a jacket that doesn't fit.
You can Photoshop something, put it out, and everyone believes it.
Years ago, I wanted to be like the girl Ne-Yo. You know, with the mid-tempo ballads - I come from the Babyface era. But that's not trendy; that's not hip-hop.
We live in such a gullible world. Anything that's written, anything that's posted, anything picture that is interpreted one way is taken as truth.
I think the sophomore curse happens when you change every bit of yourself. Though my hair is blonde now, sonically it's still the same girl; conceptually it's still the same girl.
To be honest with my music... for me to expect anyone to connect it has to come from a place of honesty.
My grandmother would sing in the choir, while my dad - while he was in college - sang and recorded with a quartet. So yeah, it was definitely my dad's Southern side that impacted on me musically.
I felt that with 'In A Perfect World' I was still kind of finding myself - not just as a musician, but also in love and in life.
I'll be honest; I'm a student of fashion. I say that because I just wear what I feel. I'm not led by name brands and things like that.
We all have something about ourselves that we'd change if we could in a perfect world, be it our body image, our financial status, our relationship, whatever. I wanted to talk about how nobody's exempted from the realities of life and all those things.
I don't want to live like a prisoner.
My dad used to sing in a quartet. He loved everything: adult contemporary, anything smooth. He'd listen to the quartets.
Even at my biggest, I want to be writing for other artists. Even at my peak - the highest I can be as an artist - I always want to be keeping my creative juices flowing, keeping money in the bank, putting my intellectual property out there.
My favorite drugstore product is Clean and Clear makeup removing cleanser. It gets the makeup off in one wash - not three or four.
I know as a consumer I want a story. I want a defining - I don't want just an album full of singles. I want to get to know the artist beyond what everyone else can hear on the radio.
Most things I go through I have to write about.
My mother - who's from Iowa - owns and runs her own day-care centre, while my father's a developer. And my musical influences, I think, came from my father's side of the family.
I love the water; I love to swim.
I prefer men to boys. To clear it up, it's not about an older or younger thing. It's a mindset, not age. There are 18-year-old men out there and there are 40-year-old boys.
