After selling 15 million albums worldwide and scoring a Grammy award over her 12-year career, soul singer Macy Gray took a break from her own music to channel her unique raspy voice in an entirely new direction-- singing her favorite songs. Her latest album, "Covered," features 10 tracks of popular R&B, soul, rap and rock hits, including lead single "Sail," originally by electro-rock band Awolnation, and a uptempo jazz-inspired rendition of Kanye West's "Love Lockdown." "I figured if I did a solo album of R&B, everyone would expect that already, and it turns out I'm a huge rock 'n' roll fan anyway, so I just picked ten of my favorite songs, then we went in and totally redid them," The 44-year-old singer shot to fame in 1999 with her soul-pop single "I Try," from her debut album "On How Life Is," winning Gray a Grammy award in 2001 for best female pop vocal performance. With her career spinning over 10 years, the singer has enjoyed a steady stream of success around the world. "In my songs, there's a message of freedom, be yourself, lots of individualism, and I think everybody all over the world can relate to things like that, and I have an interesting voice that people wanted to check out at the beginning." When being asked about where her inspirations for music came from, she said that she often looks to her three children, who brought new singers such as Adele to her attention. While Gray names Lady Gaga, Wiz Khalifa and The Black Keys as some of the artists she admires in the current music scene, there's one person in particular that she's really eager to work with, outspoken rapper Kanye West. "I like his personality. I like his arrogance. I think the world needs people like that who aren't scared to say what's for real, how they really feel, he sets an example for everyone," Gray's new album "Covered" hit shelves the first week of April.