00:00Growing up in a church, we never could really listen to R&B, so when I was able to get my own little radio, I would turn on The Quiet Storm, and I would hear Glenn Lewis or Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, and that's when I fell in love, when I snuck and listened to it.
00:18The first R&B record I purchased or owned, I think it was New Edition. Ralph was my favorite. I actually wrote my first song about him. Yes.
00:31The song I'm probably most proud of is the song I produced and wrote and Whitney Houston sung it. It was on her record. For that, that'll go down in history as the biggest moment in my whole career.
00:45To be able to have the voice sing something that I wrote is still mind-boggling.
00:52It's hard to be original because, you know, everybody has to sound the same or look the same, so I think the challenge is being original.
01:00This generation's definition of R&B is auto-tune and just take a sample, and there's no originality, and I think true R&B artists and lovers are craving for that,
01:11so I think it's coming back around because the appetite for it is there.
01:16The best piece of advice I've gotten is from Missy. When I first started out, I was kind of timid and scared because I never really wanted to be a solo artist,
01:25and she was just, like, telling me to just be yourself. Just have fun with it, and because this is what you love to do,
01:32it should be easy and just take it as that. Three years ago, I think, when I first did Essence, it was my first time,
01:38and I just got the bug, so I'm just wanting to be there every year to see everybody. Maxwell, of course, but everybody.
01:46The whole event is just fabulous, and the food. I just gotta be a pig, too.
01:52Hey, y'all, this is your girl, Tweet, and I'll be at the Essence Festival this year celebrating R&B,
01:58and it's the best, the greatest festival for R&B, so make sure you're there, all right?
02:04I want to see you in the building.
