MTV News' Elon Johnson recently sat down with Toni Braxton, who talked about how she took control of her life and career and steered herself back on track both personally and professionally. Here's her story...

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MTV News: Not a lot of artists can make such an incredible comeback as you have this time around. Were you in any way fearful about doing this album?

Toni Braxton: Yeah, very fearful. I'm still nervous, still have my fingers crossed. I was gone for so long, longer than I anticipated. In the two years I was gone, music has changed, like, twenty years. It's like twenty years passed. Since music has changed, I didn't know what to do. I wasn't sure what music to do. I had to be true to myself, but I wanted to make the music still sounded current.

MTV: You've been taking control of your life and taking more responsibility for what happens in your career. What are you doing differently this time around?

Interview Clips RealVideo

Braxton: When you're a new artist, you don't know anything about the music business. It's very new to you. It's like a corporation you're coming into, and others direct you and tell you what to do. Most of them make sense, because they know the music business, but a lot of it is personal. For me, as an artist, I think now I'm coming of age, and I'm understanding what I like and what I don't like. Now I'm having my say, whereas before, it was like... well, believe me. And it was supposed to be that way.

I think there comes a point in every person's career [to take control]. I look at artists like Madonna, how she has taken control, but it took her a second. It wasn't like this from the very beginning, and I just use them as examples of how I want to be; how they become corporations after a while. Like Madonna has [her label,] Maverick. She has so many different things, so many subtitles under her name. I think you evolve, and you grow to that.