Missy is still going to be Missy. Whatever I get on, it's still me. If I do a record with Madonna or Mariah Carey, even if I did a record with Faith Hill, it's still going to be a Missy 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.

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.

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.

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.

People are quick to be like, 'You're irrelevant. You're a flop; you're washed up.'