I see people on my timeline like, вЂњWhy canвЂ™t I find your first two albums? Can you fix this?вЂќ and I wanted to stop seeing these comments! It makes me feel so out of control to not be able to come up with a solution. I wanted to give them what they were wanting. Something that bothered me was that I thought there was a misconception that these albums werenвЂ™t available because I was somehow embarrassed by them or didnвЂ™t want people to see them. But I sold millions of albums, and theyВ wereВ a huge foundation for me - IвЂ™m proud of them. My lawyer said weвЂ™d reached the end of the statute of limitations on my re-record clause, so I was within my rights to вЂњcoverвЂќ my old songs. It seemed like I was going to have absolutely no chance of seeing eye-to-eye with my former label and getting to an agreement, so my only option was going to be to get into the studio. I had to recreate new masters of these songs. When I wasВ on the road on the Leaks, Covers & Mixtapes Tour in 2018, my collaborators and I were getting these tracks, listening to them, and figuring out what we were going to do with them. There was a period of time, like 10 days in July, when I was going in every single day and recording two songs a day. To find the tracks, I just did what my fans have been doing: I went to YouTube. I laughed about it, but I was also like, вЂњThis ainвЂ™t right!вЂќ I did these re-recorded albums with Javad Day and Jordan XL, and I sent them and my musical director the links to the songs on YouTube. Listening back to both of those albums, it brought me joy, because I was so young and naive and had no experience in the industry - it was just about my love of singing and music. My intention was to give the fans the nostalgia that they couldnвЂ™t get.

It really wasnвЂ™t my intention to try to make these songs вЂњcool,вЂќ or make them something that theyвЂ™re not.

Fifteen years ago I was 12, and I was singing about these grown-ass things that I knew nothing about. It was really interesting going back, because now IвЂ™m a woman whoвЂ™s made tons of decisions, loved and lost and fucked up. IвЂ™ve lived, so to put that into these songs was really dope. When I did вЂњKeep On Keepin OnвЂќ and thought about my 12-year-old self writing those lyrics, I cried. The idea of вЂњKeep On Keepin OnвЂќ is a message that I still need -В and one that I donвЂ™t think IвЂ™m ever going to stop needing. It was almost like a little gift that my 12-year-old self gave to myself now. That message ofВ вЂњYou gotta keep your head up high, and whatever youвЂ™re going through is going to be okay,вЂќ that was woke! I donвЂ™t know where that came from, but I was always a little weirdo. It was the same with вЂњThe High Road.вЂќ I was like, вЂњDid I manifest this happening? What the fuck?вЂќ ItвЂ™s crazy to think about the content of that song. ItвЂ™s about resilience - when people go low, you go high. I guess my 15-year-old self was having a premonition about the things that I would need for the next few years.В IвЂ™m an only child, and I always wanted a big sister or somebody who could teach me things or tell me about how life was going to be. When I was re-doing these two albums, I was feeling very nurturing toward my younger self and having compassion for her, because I feel like a different person now.В I felt like a big sister to myself. There were definitely a lot of chills, a lot of tears.

Jojo the high road vinyl