Are things getting better with each generation? Yes. It’s quite interesting to be living in these times, for me to witness an African-American being elected president. It’s quite extraordinary.
I was always talking about peace and love, even when I was a kid. That’s how I grew up in my family.
I haven’t thought about making a music film, but if I did, that would be a very interesting idea.
I feel like my best work is in front of me. I’m in the studio now, and I’m having an amazing time making this new album. It’s something I can’t help.
I found it a really refreshing change of pace to suddenly be completely directed. It was a type of collaboration that I don’t normally have.
When I’m making my music, I’m writing it, I’m producing it, I’m playing all the instruments, I’m performing. It’s my own world where I do what I feel, and nobody tells me anything.
You never know where you’re going to find a great actor.
I’ve lived my life dealing with everybody. And that’s how it’s always been for me.
Me being in my grandmother’s yard in Brooklyn. I must have been about 3. I had this red balloon. I let go of it, and it went up into the sky and just kept going and going. I completely flipped out, because I didn’t understand why.
It doesn’t take a lot to get me motivated. I’m a studio rat. When I was in high school and I would walk into a recording studio, it felt like this magical place, this temple, this womb that I could escape into.
I basically camped out for a year and a half in an Airstream trailer on the beach out in front of the studio. I had no idea what I was gonna do, what kind of album I was gonna make – all I knew was that I wanted to sit there and just take in whatever came.
My mother’s side of the family is from the Bahamas, and I spent time there on and off when I was growing up. It’s the place where I feel at peace.
I’m just looking for interesting roles and giving acting the respect it deserves.
One day we’re going to watch people fight to the death, like Roman times. Instead of being in a coliseum, we’re going to watch it on TV.
I used to do plays and some television commercials when I was younger. I guess my mom’s being an actress got me interested in that, but music definitely took its place.
At first people thought I was really arrogant and a snob about music because I’m so intense about my production and sound, and because they knew I didn’t like new music so much.
Later on in life I was like, “Wow!” because that’s exactly how it was. They don’t care that you’re mixed. They see you as one color.
One musician listens to another musician, and you get inspired and then you do your thing, but it’s yours.
I don’t go to church so much, the way my life is, but it’s in me every day.
No matter how sophisticated the style or elegant the setting, soul is the bottom line.
I believe this intense adaptability gave me the freedom to be happy anywhere.