Record companies would rather you stay dumb, not even think of it as a business, so they can either rip you off or get you out of the way in five years to make way for the new groups.

I used to skip school to go there when I was growing up in Newark, ... I saw the Flamingos, the Heartbeats, Jackie Wilson, Chuck Jackson.

When I hear music that parents hate, or older musicians hate, I know that's the new music. When I hear older people saying, 'I hate Rap or Techno' I rush to it.

I was at the Apollo Theater all the time, skipping school, and I worked in a barbershop. That's how I started with doo-wop. Now I've come full circle. I did all kinds of music. I used to work on Broadway and Tin Pan Alley.

Whoever controls the flow of information dictates our perceptions and perspectives; whoever controls the news shapes our destiny.

My ability has always been to walk out on the stage and see the audience and figure out what they wanna hear.

If you got a booty, you're going to dance to disco, funk, you know, whatever's going on. Funk is going to be involved in it.