God is the new drug.
— Tyka Nelson
I posted some songs on MySpace, and right away people started asking, 'Where can I get a CD?'
I grew up in a bubble. I just watched TV. I thought that's what you were supposed to do in life: sing and dance and act.
My brother, he just thought I was crazy.
I was a single mother, and my boys were babies. I sold my body for food, money, and Pampers.
I love to perform, to give glory to God with my own brand of funky gospel music. I think it's my mission to show people that God, that Jesus, can be cool.
I'm not really any religion. I still study with Jehovah's Witnesses, so I say I'm Apostolic Pentecostal Jehovah's Witness Seventh-Day Adventist Jew.
I'm definitely not afraid of death. It's like I'm looking forward to it, really. I'm probably a little more afraid of living.
I love my brother. But I'm not a yo-yo. He can't just keep spinning me in and out of his life.
I'm very quiet. In the beginning, my brother would play the piano, and I would sing, because that's what my mom and dad did. And then along the way, somebody teased me for even thinking that I could get up there. That stayed with me, and I became very shy.
Being Prince's sister might get me in the door, but it is my own talent that keeps me on the stage.
Inside of me, it was like my soul and what I had to do to feed my family was always split. I was writing lyrics while I was supposed to be working. I'd look up, and there's my supervisor.
I've always believed there is a better place somewhere. I feel like I'm E.T. and I'm just passing through.
For a long time, I didn't want to live.
I was the overweight kid who didn't have a boyfriend. I listened to other people say, 'You're ugly, you're fat, you're stupid,' and I believed it.
