"I ran the phonetics of east, west, and north, but nothing sounded as good or emotionally true to me as South Detroit. The syntax just sounded right. I fell in love with the line. It�s only been in the last few years that I�ve learned that there is no South Detroit. But it doesn�t matter."

I've never heard a Jay-Z song. I don't listen to pop music and I, like, it's not even my style of music, that song.

I wasn't just trying to get that racy word 'virgin' in a lyric. I was saying... that I may not really be a virgin -- I've been battered romantically and emotionally like many people -- but I'm starting a new relationship and it just feels so good, it's healing all the wounds and making me feel like I've never done this before, because it's so much deeper and more profound than anything I've ever felt.

"We were both in relationships when we met. I was maybe 16, 17, he was about nine years older than me [25] and was introduced to me at that time by a girlfriend. When he met me, I remember him gasping. And before you knew it, he told me that he was in love with me. He ended that relationship, but it took me one year to leave my relationship."

"The only thing that upsets me is that we might have reinforced certain values of some people in our audience when our own values were totally different. There were tons of guys singing along to Fight For Your Right who were oblivious to the fact it was a total goof on them."

A wop bop a loo mop, a good goddam
Tutti Frutti, good booty,
If it don't fit, don't force it,
You can grease it, make it easy.

Let it be said, right here, right now, anything you hear about this song is not true. We just got this drum machine... and I set up this drum pan. And straight away that created an atmosphere... then I set up a sound on the keyboard, so it was a good start... and I liked [those] chords... so all those words came out at that time.

"Some parts [of the song] are autobiographical, but the title comes from the idea of 69 as a metaphor for sex. Most people thought it was about the year 1969."

The video, and the cooking aftermath.

"Most people think the 'Untitled' video was about sex, but my direction was completely opposite of that. It was about his grandmother's cooking... I was like, 'Think of your grandmother's greens, how it smelled in the kitchen. What did the yams and fried chicken taste like? That's what I want you to express.'

"A few times, when I heard some of the lyrics, I was like, �That doesn�t make sense,�� Kelly recalled. �Rebecca said, �I sang it as they wrote it, Mom.� So I didn�t micromanage it."

Julian's picture.

"I swear to God, or swear to Mao, or to anybody you like, I had no idea it spelled LSD... My son Julian came in one day with a picture he painted about a school friend of his named Lucy. He had sketched in some stars in the sky and called it 'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.' Simple."