“There’s one rumor that just, for whatever reason, will not die and I’m convinced that it’s just because they really can’t figure out anything else to say about me, which kind of doesn’t make any sense because if you really just wanted to talk bad about me you could. But there’s this whole gay thing that keeps following me around. Apparently, I’m gay. Pretty much anybody that sings and has a penis is gay. So, I’m part of that elite squad according to multiple blog sites. I guess it’s because I never shot a person or talked about shooting a person or had a desire to shoot a person that I’m gay.”

“Anytime you’re sticking out like a sore thumb, you can get one of two things: Maybe you get coverage because you stick out like a sore thumb and maybe because you’re the sore thumb no one wants to touch. So I do find that doors are closed because the color of my skin, but doors are also open because of the color of my skin. And doors are closed on a lot of other people, and I’m definitely not the victim in this society, that’s for sure”.

“She being African-American gets one script out of every 10 that a white girl would get because they just aren’t the roles, they’re just not looking for a black actress in this role. It’s not like for every role they say, ”We want the best,” (it’s more like), ”No, we want a white girl. We’re sure of that.” So she has to deal with that a lot. And when you live with somebody you see that world in a different way than I would have ever seen. I think with Barack Obama running for president we’re learning very quickly that race is still at the forefront of people’s minds. Nowadays, just because they changed the laws doesn’t mean they changed the whispers. Nowadays, racism is in the whispering and it’s in the connotations”.

Vibe: You play instruments, you sing live. What’s your reaction to the artists out there, who don’t sing live—who are more of a product?
Robin: They are entertainers. There are people who are about precision and entertainment; there are people who are about emoting and expressing. Sometimes they are people who do both, but I think there is room for everybody. I want to watch Rihanna sing her songs—I don’t care! [Laughs] I want to watch and I want to listen. She ain’t got to sound like Mary J. all the time. Who does? The point is as media and critics you want to say that shouldn’t be out there, but as fans you want more music, you want more options. As a fan, I should be promoting all music coming out so I get a choice of what I want to buy.