I felt I had an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of great soul musicians of the past, who made a lot of social and political commentary through their music.

People need to spread love towards strangers. We all bleed the same blood and we are all part of a global community now.

Music, especially as an adolescent, helps to build identity because that's when people start developing a sense of self. You can kind of tell based on what music a person listens to what kind of person they'll be pretty much for the rest of their life.

Industry executives sacrificed art for what sells and mega-stars now saturate the market with the same tired lyrics.

Hip-hop educated me about other forms of music, because it sampled from all different styles.

We live in an era of consumerism and it's all about desire-based consumerism and it has nothing to do with things we actually need.

I think by the next generation either we'll have a lot of idiots who are just completely immersed in media and corporatized information, or we'll have people who enjoy media and corporatized information, but are more interconnected with human beings around the world ... And who share common goals and are willing to accept that they are a global citizen. I think the latter is more the direction.