I’ll listen to certain things that I made back then, and I’m like, ‘I wish I could have done this, I would‘ve done that’. When you start out making music, you just want to make something that people will like.

My music is often written from the perspective of an extroverted introvert.

If you can look in the mirror and say I love myself, that’s going to affect your interactions with people who look like you.

I used to think that there was a certain way I had to stick to when it came to R&B, but now I’m saying whatever, the same way these rappers do. I’m bringing that into R&B music.

I still got bars, I just use ’em differently. I’d say I’m a better singer than I am a rapper at this point because I’ve been sharpening my sword.

I think it’s good that YouTube decided that they really want to showcase Black talent.

I don’t really feel the loyalty to any particular genre. To be completely honest, I’m an R&B singer because I’m black and I sing.

I know when it comes to the actual narrative of my solo music, it’s its own thing. That’s why I went out of my way after ‘Crew‘ to not do a bunch of collaborations.

We’re products of this world we were born into. We all battle our own demons. Everyone is troubled in the dark, but, please just stop & think about the babies. They’re gonna be here long after we leave.

I was reading Neil Postman‘s ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death‘. It’s one of my favourites.

The first couple of times I went out and heard my voice or heard people listening when I wasn’t the one playing it for them, it felt good.

I mean, I wasn’t the best student in school. It would be different if I were to pursue music while I was already in school and doing things for my parents to be proud of and music was a side thing. Being that I dropped everything to do music, they was not with it.

People will listen to a song and expect that you just have that persona on all the time. But really, that was your one outlet that one day to get that emotion out. The only difference was you put it on a canvas that’s going to be there forever.

I could always sing just playing around, but I ain’t want to be no singer. I thought that was lame.

I want to put my soul into the music and still be who I am when it comes to an actual conversation.

There’s the hype stuff that people love for five minutes and then there’s the stuff that changes cultures and shifts how you look at music. And then there’s that rare point where that hype stuff changes the game.

I’ve always felt like I was observing everything, like I’m just looking out of the window, peeping how everybody is living and just penning about it, so I made the album about that concept.

In order for people to take what you say seriously, they have to know who you are as a person.

Me and Goldlink have known of each other for a minute and our managers know each other so they set up a studio session. When we got in the studio, we was cool; we’re from the same area so we have a lot in common.

You gotta question the purpose you serve for those who invite themselves into your life. Learn who you are and always question the motive. No one knows you the way you do.

You work on something for so long that you become numb to it. Like, you don’t even know how to listen to it because you listened to it so many times.

Sonder is the realization that every individual passerby has their own life just as vivid and complex as yours.

Don’t stop until you get where you’re trying to go.

An outside party don’t ever stay outside.

I don’t wake up thinking about the genre of R&B as a whole. I just make music.

I’d prefer for people to know that they’re going to get some substance when they listen to my music versus hearing the same ‘Oooh baby, I love you.’

I think it was ‘The Diary of Alicia Keys‘. That was the first time album I ever bought with my own money. I had a little Discman.

I really just wanted to make something special for women. There aren’t enough records uplifting them out there.

As cliche as it sounds, don’t stop. I feel like so often people will have talent or have potential, and they’ll quit because they don’t get anywhere as soon as they want to.

I got a toy keyboard when I was around like five or six.