Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Living your life 40 floors up, looking out every day on ocean and skies, you see the world from a different point of view. It's like living in a very interesting fishbowl, but since no one can see up here, it's like a fishbowl with a limo tint.
We're going to start seeing that it's actually less about race and more about class in the future. As much as we complain about the establishment discriminating against black people, we're going to start seeing that more of us are already in the establishment.
The New Black doesn’t blame other races for our issues. The New Black dreams and realizes that it’s not a pigmentation: it’s a mentality and it’s either going to work for you, or it’s going to work against you. And you’ve got to pick the side you’re going to be on.
That's our job as artists is to be honest about what we're feeling. And what we're feeling is not always going to be perfect. Sometimes it's going to be controversial. Sometimes it's going to piss a couple of people off. Sometimes it's going to motivate people. Sometimes it's going to inspire.
As much as we think we are as artists, we think, oh, you know, we're going to do this, we're going to do that, and really at the end of the day it's the fans that make that determination. Because if they don't buy it, stream it, share it or talk about it, then you're just a crazy person with an idea.
The more I can make a person comfortable in their environment by taking my ego's hat off and leaving it at the door, then they can dive deep within themselves and we can pull out something interesting that people have never heard before. It's the stuff that's - that no one's ever heard before is really interesting.
I think minimalism is something I just got attracted to just in general because I like the empty space, if you think about it, like there's a lot of empty space. So there are sounds there, there are chords, like coordinates, to sort of tell you where the emotion is going, but then it leaves so much room for the voice to do other things.
That's sort of what I try to do with music: to harness whatever energy is already there and see where that momentum takes me. Sometimes you're spinning that oncoming momentum in a different direction, or sometimes you're coercing it to consider itself, or sometimes you're holding it up to a mirror. But I don't really like to interrupt and come in and destroy everything and start all over. I'm not that kind of guy.
More than anything, I wanted to make sure that everybody was a pusher of difference. And they had to be able to do it in a communicative way, not esoterically. Because there are a lot of people who push things forward but sometimes only you and two people out of 500 in the room get it, but you want somebody who has mastered their craft so well that an 8-year-old gets it just like an 80-year-old gets it. They get the same visceral feeling.
When you start trying to figure out what you're the best at, that's when you become delusional because you start to believe that. [you're the best] I'd rather continue to ride that mule than to ride the cocky horse. You see people spin out of control like that all the time. Those are the most tragic stories – the most gifted people who start to believe that it's really ALL THEM. It's not all you. It can't be all you. Just like you need air to fly a kite. It's not the KITE – it's the AIR.