“My first album was completed in three months.”

People come up, and say hi and they enjoy your work.

I think the British audience might be more open-minded with some of my imagery and weird choices.

I think sometimes we’re meant to do something but things aren’t lined up correctly.

So whoever wants to come and get part of that lifestyle, we accept anybody.

Female performers have been doing this for years – pushing the envelope about sexuality – and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out.

I don’t think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear that I’m gay.

Obviously when you are doing a recording, things aren’t gonna translate as over-the-top.

I definitely have my opinions that I’m very vocal about and I’m not afraid to put them out there.

That become celebrities or become really successful in what they do because they believe in who they are.

I’m so happy to be in a committed relationship.

I’m a freak in the fondest way possible.

lf. I wasn’t going to try too hard to conform, and I knew that it could possibly not work out.

You can march to your own beat. It’s so hard sometimes in our country because conformity is the way things are pushed.

There’s no regrets for me.

I try to go throughout my daily life just as if nothing has changed, but you don’t have much anonymity anymore, which feels really good.

After my tour I had time to stay at home, be with my boyfriend and hang out with friends and that brought me down to earth and helped me write music from a more relaxed place.

Some people are attracted to vulnerability. From my very first album, I’ve been vulnerable. I’ve always given parts of me, parts of my life – good, bad, ugly. I’ve never put up this image as a super-thug. Also, some people just like the music.

The average rap life is two or three albums. You’re lucky to get to your second album in rap!

When I’m recording my album, I want to be acting, or when I’m on set, I want to be making music.

Nothing me and Kanye can do musically was gonna match the event of what we were trying to do. So we were trying to deliver an album and experience at one time; that was the idea for ‘Watch The Throne’.

When you have a reputation for making not only good songs but great albums, that in itself creates added artistic pressure. But, at the end of the day, I guess that pressure is something I welcome.

My first album was mainly dealing with street issues, and it was ‘coded’: it was called ‘Reasonable Doubt.’ So the things I was talking about…

I don’t sit around with my friends and talk about money, ever. On a record, that’s different.

You make your first album, you make some money, and you feel like you still have to show face, like ‘I still go to the projects.’ I’m like, why? Your job is to inspire people from your neighborhood to get out. You grew up there. What makes you think it’s so cool?