I don't go in the studio to make music that won't matter. I go in every night to try to make a point and make the best music that I can make.
I don't know if most people know it or not, but I produce, like, 95% of my own stuff.
I've got some growing up to do.
Time is a finite resource that you can't get back. I have the same 24 hours you have, and you get the same 24 hours as me. As you rise, so does you chance for opportunity.
I don't want to be a small-time, independent, successful rapper.
Some people will like it. Some people will hate it. Some people are indifferent. And you have to live with that as an artist. You wanna be appreciated, you wanna be liked, but you know, it's just not realistic for everyone.
I've gone on in front of a crowd of 10 people and 7,000 people.
I think you should always push yourself to want to grow and learn more and be inspired and develop.
Chance The Rapper makes some of the greatest music out, and he build his brand up organically, and the fans have reacted to it.
Something I stand for is being brave enough to invest in creative ideas that I firmly believe in and bringing those to life.
Rapping was something I always wanted to do, so after school, my friends and I would catch the bus to my house and just sit there writing songs, every day.
Anything back in New Orleans is definitely nostalgic. I really played my first shows of my life and learned to perform here. I learned how to work a stage and how to connect with a crowd. It all started here.
I've never fit in anywhere in my life. Ever.
We listen to oldies when we go on tour. Beach Boys radio was really clutch; that was definitely our favorite Pandora station.
I think my music is so personal that it lets people in. And they identify with me more because of that, you know, so it's like my story; it's who I am as a person.
I think when you're telling a story from inside of you that's genuine, people connect with it.
I think it's natural for a creative to be sensitive. If I'm in the studio and I write something, I think it's the greatest thing in the world; it's like my baby. I just made something out of thin air that exists now in a tangible form. It's the biggest thrill in my life.
I'm not on the radio all day long. I'm not on TV.
I love being in a room in front of an audience who cares about the music, who knows the music, and who has lived with the music. It's kind of like an experience you share. I'm on stage performing it, but they're singing the words, too.
I read the Steve Jobs book, and that kind of changed everything. I've been, like, an Apple geek my whole life and have always seen him as a hero. But reading the book, and learning about how he built the company, and maintaining that corporate culture and all that, I think that influenced me a lot.
The Bay area made me who I am, and it only felt right to go back there.
Growing up, I heard as much E-40 and Mac Dre on the radio as I did 50 Cent. It's in our culture to support our own.
You have an entire generation of kids who grew up with the idea that music is something that you can download for free.
When you're from the Bay Area, there's this chip on your shoulder that you inherently come up with, because us, as a region, we've been overlooked in the grand scheme of the history of the genre and the culture.
I didn't grow up around all white people; I never wanted to gentrify hip-hop, I've never wanted to speak to an all-white audience.
That raw connection between the two performers is something you can't fully plan. You just go with it and get lost in that moment and feed off of each other.
It's definitely been a long, long... long, long, long, long, long journey since I was selling burnt CD's out of my backpack in downtown Oakland.
I stick with a '60s vintage aesthetic of letterman's jackets, plain T-shirts, and good jeans.
My music is very reminiscent of the sound I grew up on and the place where that happened. It's a combination of everything I'm inspired by.
London, from the architecture to the culture to the fashion to the accents, feels like it's a special place.
I try to find 15 minutes a day to just be alone without any distractions just for headspace to meditate and get my Zen on. I think that helps me get through the hecticness of the day on tour with the interviews, the sound check, the meet and greets, the show and the post-show meet and greets.
Sometimes you wake up the next morning after making a lot of bad decisions and have this nonchalant reaction like, 'These Things Happen' - what can I say?
Me personally, I will always be a fan at the end of the day. No matter how big this gets, I still look up to other artists and people I respect creatively.
