Justine Skye

Growing up, it was always a huge battle with my mom to let me color my hair or add extensions.

I'm not just a pretty face. I want to pursue something.

I surrounded myself with a lot of different creative people and ambitious people.

You want to accomplish everything; there's no limits to what you want to do. You want to do movies. You want to do modeling. You want to be an entrepreneur - you want to enter every aspect of the entertainment business.

Who knows, maybe I'll be a basketball player one day? No, I'm definitely never going to be a basketball player. I have no hand-eye coordination.

It's kinda hard to date as an artist because you're all over the place, and your significant other may seem jealous, depending on what they're doing.

Everyone that's come into my life, everything that has happened, has been a part of the plan. It's not even about being in the industry or becoming more popular; it's just about growing and outgrowing some people.

You got to learn when to be the bigger person, especially in the entertainment business.

When you're in the limelight, you can't always lash out.

I'm obsessed with Minnie Riperton's voice: it's like a smooth river of ice cold strawberry milk.

I have three styles. One is my Hypebeast tomboy look, which is pretty much my everyday look.

We all feel like we're alone, but as artists, we get to see firsthand from our fans that we're not. Hearing them scream the words to your songs is the most amazing feeling.

I get nervous every single time. It doesn't matter if there're five people or five thousand. What I have noticed is that the more people there are, the less nervous I am. It's way harder to impress five people.

The first three years my hair was purple, I still was trying to convince myself that I hated the color purple.

When it comes to dance hall music, I definitely listened to a lot of Vybz Kartel growing up or Gyptian and Mavado.

When it comes to '90s R&B, I grew up on a lot of Aaliyah and Destiny's Child, Missy Elliott, Usher, Jill Scott. Whatever my mom was playing in the house is what I was listening to.

I kind of came about at the same time as Instagram, and it becomes, like, your portfolio. When people search who you are, they search Instagram, and I feel like people aren't even using Google anymore.

It all started with social media, building a fan base via Tumblr and YouTube, doing covers, and releasing a project with original music. Labels started to peel interest then. It was around the same time I was applying for college.

What inspires me is the relationships and situations I find myself in as I grow and learn.

My style is very spontaneous.

For the most part, my daily attire is comfortable yet fashionable - I guess you can call it tomboyish.

My mom is an entertainment attorney, and she brought me to a BMI panel for people who were interested in becoming artists. While I was there, her friends kept peer pressuring me to go and sing in front of everyone because I was a very, very shy girl.

I just want to make great music. There's not a genre that I would categorize it as, but I want it to be true and authentic.

I'm hoping that people will love the music, but at the same time, the most important thing to me is that I love the music.

When I was 16, I started to spend a lot of time in Soho and downtown New York and noticed everyone's style and the eclectic things people would wear. And that's when I started to experiment with things like my lipstick and mixing different kinds of pieces and, of course, my hair color.

One thing that I must do with every wash is deep condition. I have this theory in my head that it will make my hair really healthy, especially since I'm always keeping it in different styles.

Being a brown girl, I like to wear colors that are similar to my skin tone, so I wear a lot of dark colors - never anything that's too bright.

There's always competition in the world, but you don't have to be enemies. You can empower each other.

Social media is a huge struggle for my generation in general - it's a lot of pressure! Even having an Instagram is stressful. You have to make it look cool, posting it at the right time, and it's become its own job and not something where you connect with people.

One of the biggest things I struggle with is people's opinions. As much as I would like to say that I don't care, I see those comments. And sometimes it affects you more than others, or may completely change your mood.

It may sound corny and cliche, but there was a time - and there are still times even today - when I feel lost or confused, and I question if I'm doing the right things. Then I look at my fans, and I listen to music, and I'm reminded that this is my destiny.

I shift between Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat probably 250 times a day, which probably isn't healthy, but I'm unfortunately addicted.

Sometimes there can be pressure to post, especially from your followers.

Things move really fast on the Internet and get forgotten, we always want something new, even though something may have just came out.

No one can predict the future, but what I do know is that myself and my team work hard every day to make sure that my vision, my sound, and my brand reach their full potential.

Music says the things that people don't say or are afraid to say, and that's the best part about it for me.

When I first started wearing blue lipstick, it was a MAC gloss that they had. Everyone was making fun of me, and I was like, 'Watch - this is going to be cool one day.'

MAC always has the cool, funky products.

When it comes to lipstick and makeup, I love MAC.

I've been through a heartbreak and seen the business side of the music industry. Now I see things clearer.

R&B was really prominent in the '90s, and we can all admit that it kind of fell off. But my generation is more in touch with our emotions - we're not afraid to show them. We're bringing that decade back.

For the most part, I'm very into sweatpants and cute tops from streetwear brands like Supreme and Palace for a '90s tomboy vibe.

The day I do get my Roc Nation chain is going to be so much more valuable than if they gave it to me the day I signed. You have to earn it.

That's where people go wrong in the music industry: they get all these fancy things and think that they deserve them, but they really haven't done anything to earn them yet.

I'll always be a Brooklyn girl.

Sometimes, people have issues, and you just wish sometimes that it could be good.

My dream collaboration would be to work with Drake. Honestly, he's an amazing songwriter, and I feel like if we got the opportunity to do a song, it would be the most amazing thing to ever hit people's ears.

I want to build up the most hype around my album. I wouldn't just throw it away.

I'm not going to blurt out my whole life on the Internet and just be all crazy emotional. I'm not that type of person, but it's in my music.

I'm more conscious about who I let into my heart, and I'm singing about it.