MTV: On the other side of that, you have songs like "Have A Cry" with lines about being human and having a weakness. How much do your relationships with men or people in general give this album those more aching songs?
Kina: Only one song of mine is a reflection of a relationship of mine, and it's called "Still Here." There's a sound in the keyboard and it's haunting, and it just struck sad, and I had to think of a time when I felt my saddest, and it was when I broke up with my first love. So I had to go back and recall it, and I wrote about it.
MTV: Do you consider songwriting and making music therapeutic?
Kina: I think so. With each of these songs, I think I kind of resolve something.
MTV:MTV: Another thing that struck me was your song "Me" and the lyric, "I'm in love with myself." Is this sort of a personal anthem for you?
Kina: Definitely. It is just an affirmation of, you know, "I ain't that bad."
MTV: In a lot of articles, you've been compared to a Macy Gray or an Angie Stone. Do you think that's a good thing or a bad thing? Does it matter to you?
Kina: It matters. I think it's not a fair thing. We are all completely different. I am completely different from Angie Stone. Angie Stone is completely different from Macy Gray. The hair might be similar, maybe the skin tone. But that's it, you know? We are nothing alike. It's kind of unfair to be lumped into the same categories all the time. Those are the names that are mentioned any time my name is mentioned.
MTV: Do you think something like that makes it more difficult for black women to pursue a career in the type of music that you're performing, or do you think it'll open doors?
Kina: I think it'll open doors. With Macy's success, people are definitely gonna open the doors. I think the doors are gonna flood open.
MTV: There's kind of a return of the black rock star, do you think? Maybe it never left, and maybe it hasn't been really noticed since the days of Sly And The Family Stone and Jimi Hendrix. Or maybe it seems there are fewer boundaries with regard to what kind of music black people "can" make right now.
Kina: I think it's just a good time. I think that black people and R&B listeners are tired of the current state of R&B, and people are starting to look outside for some more lyrical content, some songs with some more meaning. I think that's why people are looking to other things. What I'd like to see is somebody come do an R&B band, like we had [with] Earth, Wind & Fire back in the day. I'd like to see that: straight-up R&B no rock. I'd like to see R&B be R&B. [RealVideo]
MTV: The second-to last song on your album is "Insanity." A lot of the times, as an audience, we believe that everything than an artist sings about or talks about is their life, and we don't really conceptualize the idea that they may be singing about a friend or something that they knew happened to someone else. But with that track, is that something that's personal to you?
Kina: It was just a thought: wouldn't it be great to be able to walk down 45th Street naked if you want to? And just don't care? If you're insane, you can do whatever you want to do. So it was just the thought of wanting to be insane so that you could just have complete freedom.
MTV: You would describe "Insanity" as freedom.
Kina: Definitely. [Laughs]
