I think as a writer, as an artist, I've grown a lot.
If an artist is any good at all, then he or she will have a later phase that's more interesting than the early one.
I've definitely grown and evolved as a person, as an artist, you know. Just in terms of my style, my taste, my influences, everything... That's a part of being an artist I think.
So few hip-hop artists have ever advanced. Their songs on their seventh, eighth albums sound exactly like the songs on their first album. More than an artist, I'm a real person-and real people grow. And I wanna just sing my growth.
How can you sing a line like, 'I've fallen out of love' when you're 18? You need to experience something of life before you can sing it.
I don't want to compare myself to Picasso, but he had four or five periods in his life. Any good artist grows and changes and matures.
It's rare that you see an artist in his 30s or 40s able to really contribute something amazing.
You'd be surprised how young 25-year-old girls can sound when they want to scream. It isn't that young an audience, and it really frustrates me when I read the word "prepubescent" in my reviews. Even the ones that started following me with Wham! are in their late teens by now.
Elvis might have compromised his musical style a bit towards the end, but that doesn't mean that artists from the rock n' roll/folk-roots culture - of which he was not really a part - shouldn't get better as they get older, like the great jazz or blues artists.
