As long as my bank account keeps going up, my mom's good, my friends are good, I don't care what nobody has to say.Collection: Mom
I live the everyday struggle in real life.
The people in the world who don't know my background, don't know my story, don't know anything about me, they're gonna judge it off face value and hate right away. People hate what they can't understand.
My uncle was an Indian singer for a long time. He was pretty popular in India. He was one of the first people to take me to my first studio when I first got interested in making beats. My other uncle, on my mom's side, played piano and keyboard.
I never take nothing serious.
I want to learn as much as I can from the people around me that know how to dress better than me.
The bigger I've gotten, the more humble I am. Life just humbles you.
I'm the most easygoing guy.
In any creative process, the hardest thing is putting the pen to paper. You walk around the room staring at a blank piece like, 'What if I don't make a good song? What if I don't make a good book? What if I don't make a good painting?' You just gotta put your pen to the paper and not judge your work.
I don't work a 9 to 5. I celebrate every day.
I had to find the balance between personal and professional.
I feel like people start hating on me and I don't know what it is - maybe because of my race or somethin. But I don't care, and I just keep working.
There's a lot of pressure on my shoulders people don't really think about or appreciate.
There's been times that I did songs with people and they didn't put me on their album, I just respect their vision.
I'm ready for what comes with success. It's part of the job. But I'm not a controversial person. Like I don't got a lot of controversy around me.
I'm pretty quiet in the media. It's just the way I carry myself.
I don't really like attention that much. But at the end of the day, if they're snapping you, that means you're doing something right - or wrong.
I thought the fans would just like whatever I put out because it was me.
I really wanted attention. I really liked attention. But now that I got all the attention I find myself just, like, chilling by myself or going to low-key places.
I remember hiding behind my mom at parent teacher conferences.
I was at my mom's house in the hood my whole life. I didn't get to see L.A. until I was 26.
I used to think I was cursed 'cause of my high-pitched voice and image.
On 'Reckless' I was just a rapper, but really I'm a producer, engineer, a musician, and needed to put that all into the music.
Drake's an amazing person and we hang out all the time in Toronto.
Before, I would walk outside with my XO jacket on and just pray that someone would notice me. But they wouldn't even look at me.
I've known Uzi for a while... he's the best.
I'm always in the studio. The studio is kinda like rolling the dice every night. It's like gambling. It's like buying a lottery ticket. The more times you go to the studio, it's just more lottery tickets, more chances you win on the jackpot.
Growing up where I grew up, you think you're grown, but you're not. I come off very immature in my songs and in my manners and everything and I'm trying to tighten up.
It's definitely an underdog vibe at XO.
I feel like Toronto is always going to be the most musical place as long as we stick to learning all the time.
There might be a brown kid who paints and isn't sure, and his parents want him to be a lawyer or something. Not saying that's bad, but it's something that he's not interested in. I hope I inspire the brown guys, brown girls, everybody, just to follow their dreams with no fear. Because that's what I did.
I don't have the best pen, maybe, but I know overall, the music, the sound is gonna sound great.
When I started going to middle school, all my friends were from my hood and were like, 'Listen to Nas and 50 Cent.'
I take influence from weird synth-pop and put it into a hip-hop beat.
I like to play video games. I like doing regular stuff too like go-karting and bowling.
I watched The Weeknd create one of his biggest albums - the 'Starboy' album. That's when I first came around in the team.
There's an album I did called 'Reckless' and that time is the perfect example of me not caring about music, me caring about everything else and forgetting about what brought me here. And that's why I feel like I had the results I did with that album.
When I was like in grade 3, my mom bought me a boom box for Christmas. I would lay the boom box on my chest... I would put it on my chest and listen to music all day.
I met Metro on FaceTime. In person, was in the studio. That was when we had already decided we were gonna do a mixtape together. There were three keyboards around him. Once I started to say, 'Hey, let me do something,' he kind of got out of my way and then the magic started happening.
If it's the right song for me, I'll get on that song. It's not about the individual. It's about the music.
What people think about me don't get me paid. I don't care, but there's an element of a race wall. Maybe 'cause I'm Indian or something.
The first time I ever stepped on stage was the O2 Arena in London.
Half of these dudes are hating on you because they're in their one-bedroom apartment writing on their MacBook Air. You can't take it and make it personal.
I want people to see how much I really love music and what went into it.
A lot of people say I use too much autotune but no, my voice is just robotic. I say a word with one flat note... I don't do vibrato. You can hear me, you know what it is.
I never want to be that old guy that doesn't pay attention to a young kid. I always noticed that when I was younger. The OGs to me, whoever was around me, I was like, wow. You're all really out of touch. I, I never want to be like that.
There was a time when I gave up music completely and I sold all my equipment just because it wasn't going anywhere.
I play 'Call of Duty' a lot with the photographer, Gunner Stahl.
You can ignore a hater comment, but if you see the same comment ten times, you gotta start paying attention.
It's tough for someone to see me from the outside, the way I look, to take me seriously.