Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
You don't make any money being an artist. Writing and producing? You get your money from that. You live comfortable.
I didn't want to just be an artist and let someone else have all that control over me. I knew I would have to produce.
I still represent for overweight adults and kids, but I am also now painfully and personally aware of the health issues.
I ain't no icon. It's people like Patti LaBelle, somebody like that's an icon. I'm just Missy. I'm just crazy, that's all.
I don't think Puffy knows what he did for hip-hop. Because he intertwined hip-hop and R&B so that people weren't intimidated.
When I create something, it's got to be special, and it can't just be to throw something out there because I feel like I'm Missy.
When something is so hot, I don't want to just jump on it right away. I want to take it home and make sure I give it my best shot.
Me personally, I don't ask too much, but I do ask Him to continue to bless me successfully, financially, and just to keep me humble.
Music is a male-dominated field. Women are not always taken as seriously as we should be, so sometimes we have to put our foot down.
I go out and date people, but I don't have that relationship, where you know, I'm like Jennifer Lopez, like I'm going to get married.
Maybe I should find myself one of those sexy British soccer stars. David Beckham is hot. But I've got a hell of a lot of competition.
When I first started in the business, I spent so much! Staying in a Trump Hotel for two years, spending eight Gs a month just living.
I want to dip my foot in some acting. And most definitely want to mentor upcoming artists and give them the wisdom that was given to me.
I remember having mice in the house and my father taking some newspaper and beating me because mice was running on me while I was asleep.
I don't want to get caught up and be an artist always on the go. Because once you do that, it's hard to get into the studio and do what I do.
I can't complain. I think when you get to a certain point, you shouldn't complain because there's so many people who would kill to get to this point.
I still go on YouTube and watch the old performances and the 'Soul Train' lines. I'm still amazed by how much soul and funk the music and dancers had.
Things happen in your life, and then you can write something else instead of the same three topics - like, how many times can we write about the clubs?
All of the trials and tribulations from personal to the artist. It shows that I'm human. People see the glamorous stuff, but they don't see the background.
We're told that to be fly, you gotta have a fly car, the rims on your wheels, the fly jewels, and that to work a regular job and make legal money is uncool.
I do Dance Dance Revolution. I'm not as good as the little kids that come in the arcade. Their little feet go crazy fast. I'm not that fast, but I'm good on it!
I used to put all my doll babies on my bed with their hands up and I would do full shows for them. I'd even do the screaming and clapping. I was bugging to be a singer.
I believe that tracks speak to me. Some tracks make me write certain music or make me feel sad or inspire me to write a sad love song. Each track has its feeling to me.
I talked about my father being abusive to my mother - people have never heard me talk about anything like that. That brings people a little bit more personal with Missy.
When you turn on your radio, you don't always want to hear about someone shootin' some person. Even if that's the lifestyle they live, people don't always want to hear it.
The fun part of being an entertainer is that you call up Six Flags, and you say, 'I'm coming,' and you get to get on all the rides before everyone. I hate standing in line.
My mother helped me to be who I am: to have strength and not to let people run all over me and yet to be humble; to realise that all of this that I have today could be gone.
It feels different.... When hip-hop was beginning for me, people weren't making the kind of money that they make now. It was for the love of doing it and having fun with it.
You get people who rap about stuff that they don't do all day long. Half those guys, you hear them on the radio, and then you meet them, and you're like, 'Wow. They're so sweet.'
My father was very abusive, and it was hard for my mother at first to leave because we had depended on him for so long. Sometimes you kind of get adjusted to getting that beating.
I have to respect her family, and until they come and say, 'We're ready to do an Aaliyah album,' then I don't really want to come and try to get into that because that's very sensitive.
Before, you only had one Public Enemy and one Rakim and one Salt 'N' Pepa. Now, people have got the formula, and some of them are just doing it for the cheque. It's kind of watered down.
I never stopped recording, but I went through a period where... The one thing that a lot of people don't know is that for as long as I've been as artist, I've been a writer and a producer.
I want kids of this generation to see that everything is cool, that there's some kind of unity in hip-hop. We all found something that's really important to us, and music is all we've really got.
A lot of people don't do this. You can count on a couple of hands probably how many artists also produce and write, both for themselves and for others, and are able to be successful at both things.
I know how domestic violence can affect a family, and I want to do everything I can to stop it from happening to others. The most important thing we can do is teach kids that they can break the cycle.
A lot of people don't know that before the artist, I wanted to be a writer and producer. That's always been a love of mine. Its easy for me to do it on myself, but it's fun to create for someone else.
I still don't want no broke dude! I'm open to offers, but he's got to be stable. I see a lot of friends who feel they have to be with a man, but they always pick the wrong one. Are there any right ones?
No, I'm a flirtatious person; I'll flirt all day long, but it really is hard to get into that when I'm so into the music, and I'm in the studio all day long and all night sometimes. That's not an exaggeration.
I'm blessed to be living this dream of writing and singing, but that's not the real dream I had. The real dream was to make enough money to take care of all the pain and suffering that my mother has been through.
I'd stand on the side of the road when I was just a little girl singing on trash cans. People would roll down their windows saying, 'Isn't she cute'. I had a vivid imagination. I always pretended it was some big stage.
I hear a lot of influence from me and Timbaland's whole sound in a lot of records of today. But if you have classics like that, then I'm sure you gotta expect that it's gonna influence some people. So, I'm fine with that.
I felt like, 'How do I fit in'? I'm battling. But then I never fit in!'... I thank God for somebody like Pharrell who stayed in my ear. For him, at that time, 'Happy' was everywhere; he didn't have to share anything with me.
Especially when the expectations become so high of you, you always remember the last record that might have been really successful, and you're trying to outdo that or trying to make something that does not sound like the last record.
When I first started out in the music industry and went to Elektra Records, I didn't go to be an artist, I went to get a record label started. And they said in order to have a label deal, I had to be an artist - so that's what I did.
Rule number one in negotiating anything with Missy is never try and run me over. Never push me, because I am a very strong woman. I'm nice, but I'm very strong. When it gets down gritty, I can get grittier. Never, ever underestimate me.
I think it's being innovative and very creative to stay away from flat-out sampling somebody else's record. To me, that doesn't show too much of your creative side unless you take a little piece and add it, almost like spice on a chicken.
I try not to be cruel to people. I know there's a karma, and I'm constantly thinking of my blessings. I live and die by being a Baptist. If I can't go to church on a Sunday, I'll get a tape by the Clark Sisters and slide it in for the day.
I feel like, O.K., if I can make it as a singer, then let me try rapping. If I can make it as a rapper, then let me try writing. All right? If I make it as a rap singer and writer, then why not try to produce? I don't feel limited in any way.
I remember, in school, writing Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson and asking them to come get me out of class. I would imagine them running down the hall and asking my teacher, 'Ms. Daniels, can we get Missy out of class? We're here to see Missy.'