We're trying to teach artists that if you're smart enough to develop the material, then you're smart enough to market and promote the album too.

We have to be very clear about what we're doing to our music. We're giving away free albums. Now think about the psyche of the ordinary man, we don't respect anything that's free. Anything that we get easy has no validity.

My passion comes from the things that have historically happened to black people in Mississippi. I can honestly say that most of the things that I've accomplished in my life have come from my spirituality and my belief in God.

One of the worst things that happened to black people in America historically is integration. People ask me why I say that and I tell them it's because we gave up all of our control.

I realize it's about the artists and about the fans. Those are the people who truly have the power. It's like politics, we give away our power to representatives and we give it away to our President. That's what I'm showing with this 2-M-1 movement.

I'm giving my fans the songs that they want to hear from me. Why do we love to hear ourselves being downgraded. Why do we love to hear the negative situations that we see in our lives daily? I'm not trying to make sense of it, I'm not giving any solutions, I'm just tossing the question.

Faith allows me to feel that as long as I'm in line with God everything will be O.K. and that I'll make it through whatever.