Kelis.

Your late father was a minister. How would he have felt about your sex symbol status?

My father was very supportive of me as a musician, but any daddy is going to be a bit uptight with his little girl. I'd like to think he'd see that I'm a lady and I'm grown-up and I have a good time with what I do.

You covered the Pretenders' "Brass in Pocket" for the Just Like Heaven soundtrack. Were you big into '80s new wave?

Because I grew up in the church, I had a gospel and jazz background. I started listening to the radio around 12 or 13, with the explosion of grunge. Then in '93 I began getting into rap.

The lyrics of "Bossy" are no-nonsense. Have you always felt in charge?

My mom is a strong female, and that's how my sisters and I were raised: proud.

You're rocking a new Salt 'N' Pepa--inspired asymmetrical haircut. Did you wake up one morning screaming "Cut it all off!" or did you deliberate for ages?

To be honest, I was ready two months ahead of time, and I had to wait--which was torment--because I knew the thing to do was cut it off in my video. When that day came,

I was like, You guys better get this damn shot, because this is it.

Your new album title is a nod to classic graffiti. Have you ever vandalized anything?

Totally. Back in the '90s we used to tag up everything. Even on my first European trip, I wrote "Kelis Was Here" everywhere, just in case I never came back.

In your blog you recently referred to a gay friend who helped with the album art as "'one of the kids,' if u know what I mean." That's cool: "The kids" sounds more laid-back than "the children" or "legendary children." Yeah ... of course, only one of "the kids" would actually catch that!