Gospel influences your soul. If you've had church in your background... it's just a part of your musical DNA.
Jazzy Jeff is somebody who taught me what I really wanted to do for other people. He has the big ol' house where musicians can come there, stay for a while, create music, eat, reset.
I was about to leave L.A. because I didn't find enough soul in the musicians. Back in Virginia, it was just leaking soul everywhere.
I started on the drums when I was eight.
Seeing Ed Sheeran make a beat from scratch when I was in college changed my life.
Most of my music is reflective, imaginative. A lot of it is about how I'm going to feel in the future.
I'm an athlete. I play basketball and football and all that with a bunch of other men, but that doesn't impact me emotionally.
I travel more than anybody I know.
I feel like anything with my music can be traced back to a woman.
With 'Lady Lady' I wanted to tell a story bluntly, and that's what happened. The goal is to get Erykah Badu-ish with it because she super bares her soul and she's so blunt.
It's really easy to hide in metaphor or hide in a solo or instrumentation, but when you're saying explicitly this is how I feel it's a bit different - it makes you a more vulnerable person.
Something I do naturally is I just involve women in my professional work. I hire them, I pay them, I put them in the workplace I'm involved in.
Everyone communicates with music in a different way. With some people, if there's not sheet music, they're not playing it.
There's not a lot of thinking in my music. I freestyle a lot of things and organize it later, and then it becomes a song.
I feel like it's my responsibility to contribute to a good vibe in the world and to do what I can, when I can.
I don't want to create music or do a partnership because of the money. I don't want to be money-influenced.
I think for the culture I gotta collaborate with Pharrell. He's from my area, that'd be amazing - what he would pull out of creatively.