Mystikal

I come from an era of music when it had heart and soul.

I'm writing songs to perform, to entertain. And when I'm really trying to get inspired, I go backwards, and I just rap.

All you have to do is put me in front of the people and put the beat in front of me, and the rest is history.

If you look at my CV, just about everything I have done has come through a publicly funded institution; it is a career entirely built on that sort of support.

I've always been very determined, ever since I was a little girl, to make my way.

Shaft was a pop culture figure along t he lines of, I guess, Dirty Harry - except that he wasn't as much of a racist. So yeah, I was always a fan.