Fresh off the release of her debut Songs in A Minor, Alicia speaks to the Associated Press in July about the record: “Being connected with people, that’s what I hope for,” the 20-year-old Manhattan native says. “Numbers I leave for everyone else to count and calculate.”

The album debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart after its release in June. Selling 236,000 copies in its first week. Now selling over 7 million copies in the States and 12 million worldwide. Earning Alicia five Grammys at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards.

Alicia speaks on her respect for Clive Davis: “When we first met, he definitely asked me, ‘What do you see for yourself? Tell me what you see for your career,’” she says. “That’s an incredible question for a person of his stature to all you, record executive-wise, and to even care what you think.”

In turn, Davis calls Alicia “a stunning beauty, a unique writer of songs. She is the combination of the best of what you want.”

Although she loves the journalists that put her name in the same sentences as Lauryn Hill, Macy Gray, Jill Scott and Erykah Badu, the hype does make her laugh a little: “I definitely feel like sometimes people jump the gun. Not to say I will not be around for a very long time—because I will—but at the same time, step by step,”

She counts Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder among her influences, but also talks about how Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die will always be in her CD player. 

But she doesn’t label her sound: “It’s definitely a lot of different styles, and I don’t describe it because I hope to constantly be changing it, ever so slightly, ever so gently experimenting with different sounds and styles. I do definitely expect to take the world by storm, I absolutely intend to do that. I intend to just do quality things, follow my spirit and build my spirit so it gets strong, so that me as a person continues to grow and be a good individual and I know everything else behind that will follow.”

“You know what I think? When you’re not 2 million thousand times platinum, you have more freedom to just be and do, you don’t have to quench the thirst of any main public, and its just like being more able to be yourself. Those couple of hundred thousand people accept you for that. They like you to be yourself.” 

Not that she has any intention of being unknown: “I want to be around forever. I want to be performing if I want to when I’m 65. If I want to roll out of the house and do a show, I want to be able to do a show, and write songs and get into as many different as possible.”