Celebrity News

Miley Cyrus: ‘I’m not the white Nicki Minaj’

Miley Cyrus is hard at work promoting her latest grown-up music, actively shedding her Disney star image and multiple layers of clothing. The 20-year-old singer wants the world to know that she’s not the “white Nicki Minaj,” but she aspires to be the “female Miguel and Frank Ocean.”

“A lot of people wanted to try to make me the white Nicki Minaj,” Cyrus told Billboard in their latest issue. “That’s not what I’m trying to do. I love ‘hood’ music, but my talent is as a singer.”

She tells the magazine that she embraces her country-pop roots but she’s “moving over to a more urban side.”

Of her upcoming album, she says, “It’s not a hip-hop album, though — it’s a pop album. I’m not coming in trying to rap. It’s more like, ‘I don’t see any girls out there doing what Miguel and Frank Ocean are doing.’”

Cyrus explains that her controversial new single “We Can’t Stop” – laced with thinly-veiled drug references and partying at strip clubs – is based on her life: “I’m 20 years old and I want to talk to the people that are up all night with their friends. It’s based on a true story of a crazy night I had: When I heard the song for the first time, it captured exactly what I was living.”

While she does not talk about her much-discussed personal life – her parents Billy Ray and Tish just announced a split, and the starlet’s engagement with “Hunger Games” actor Liam Hemsworth is reportedly on the rocks – Cyrus says in the interview that she puts her career ahead of her relationships.

“I never stop working, ever — I put my track list together this morning,” Cyrus says. “I want my record to be the biggest record in the world, and I’ve given everything to get here, even down to friends and family and relationships — I’ve just put this music first.”