Nelly Furtado

Growing up, did you and your boyfriends have special songs?
Oh, yes, for sure! New Edition's "Can You Stand the Rain," Janet Jackson's "Again," Boyz II Men's "Water Runs Dry." The tradition of playing "Stairway to Heaven" lived on through the Nineties at my high school. My boyfriend then, Brad Moore -- our song was the Verve's "On Your Own."

Why am I reading in the papers about a romantic connection between you and NBA MVP Steve Nash?
On my first official song that includes my rapping ["Promiscuous"] I have to give a shout-out to my homeboy from Victoria [British Columbia]: Steve Nash. But that rumor is so bizarre. He's married with children -- I do a charity with him. We're just friends. Thank God I didn't wear his jersey in my video. That would've been overkill.

What do you like to listen to before, during and after making love?
I hope my mom reads this. I'll give you one of them, the "during": the Bloc Party remix album.

What's the Hit Factory in Miami like?
It's an amazing place. Cash Money and Lil Wayne work upstairs, and then there's Timbaland and Scott Storch. You have Ricky Martin leaving the studio with fifty Latin journalists after a press conference, then Paris Hilton is working with Storch and a million paparazzi are hiding in the bushes, and then you've got rappers coming to Tim with briefcases of cash, and Tim going through his beats like a Rolodex. When you're recording in Miami, you feel like you're in a club, on the pulse of culture before it breaks.

You were such a hip-hop kid -- that must've been a dream come true.
You've got to picture me: Thirteen years old, in my suburban Victoria bedroom with my walls plastered with all the posters I had ripped out of Word Up! magazine. I'd watch Pump It Up! with Dee Barnes religiously, listen to Seattle's hip-hop/R&B stations, dress up like TLC for Halloween. I was obsessed!

Were you T, L or C?
We'd always fight over Chilli. I was T-Boz one time and Left Eye another. My cousin with the best hair always got to be Chilli. And you know how they'd wear condoms on their outfits? We had a joke store that actually sold colored, large- size condoms. So we'd get dressed and be like, "Bye, Mom!" Then we'd put the condoms on before we got to the dance.

Timbaland doesn't come cheap. How much money do you think Loose cost to make?
It's not that bad. Like, a million dollars? [Laughs] Hey, America, buy at least a million and I'll be cool.

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