As A Young Black Boy, It Made

Women Are Dealing With The Same Thing: They're Dealing With Expectations About How They're Supposed To Look And How They're Supposed To Interact With Men. I Think We're All Trying To Figure It All Out, Especially When We're Teenagers, But I Think The Key Is To Listen And Empathize With One Another.

I Spent A Lot Of Time, A Lot Of Energy Trying To Be A Better Artist And I Still [do]. I Spend A Lot Of Time Focusing On My Craft. If You're Going To Take Your Passion Into Something Beyond Just Something For Fun On The Side, You Got To Spend A Lot Of Time On It To Be Great, And Then You've Got To Make Smart Decisions About Who You Collaborate With [and] Where You Live [to] Put Yourself In The Right Situations To Meet The Right People To Catch Those Breaks.

I Think You're Always Policing Yourself By Trying To Do What You Think Would Be "cool" And Accepted By Other People, Until You Start To Figure Out Who You Really Want To Be. Growing Up Is An Ongoing Push-and-pull Of You Being Yourself And You Performing To What Society Expects You To Be.

The Issue I Focus On The Most Is Extreme Poverty. I Think It's Kind Of Out Of Sight Out Of Mind. I Wish There Would Be More Stories About That To Connect People To What's Happening. To Personalize It, To Make It Real To People, To Inspire Them To Action.

I Always Saw Myself As A Singer-songwriter, A Solo-artist, That's Why Working With Other Artists Was Never Satisfying For Me.