Tink

I think, being a woman, we got to prove ourselves twice.

No fake stuff. If you have a personal relationship with a female, it'll be easier and more real to do a song.

I can write a love song or a ballad, or when I read something and it pisses me off, I know how to go in.

Country singers put a lot of soul into their songs, and I enjoy that.

I like country music. Sometimes I'll just type in 'country' on Pandora and listen. I really like the passion in the lyrics.

Tink is the voice of the youth. I'm not one of those artists who talks about unrealistic things or fairy tales. I'm not talking about expensive things and cars. I'm actually talking about what's going on in my life and every teenager's life, too.

The more I got into my artistry, I got a bigger responsibility: the kids in Chicago, they look up to the rappers. We influence them.

There's a broad range of male rappers, so if they're going out on a limb and they sound different, it's okay, because we have 20 other rappers doing what the radio wants... as far as females, there aren't as many, so if you want to compete, you have to sound just like this, because that's the only thing hot right now.

Working with Timbaland, you know it's not gonna sound like anything else out there today. The sound is very next-level.

I'm in my own little lane, doing just me. I don't have to fit in.

When I'm rapping, like, a turn up song, I'm thinking about what the people want to hear; this is what they're going to like. When I'm singing, I'm, like, telling my story. I'm not worried if people like it; I'm just trying to be truthful, you know what I'm saying? I'm just talking about something that happened to me.

My parents are both into music. My mom sings and my dad plays piano, so there was always music everywhere. I was singing at a very young age, but I actually got my buzz through rapping.