One of my first big shows, I opened up for Chris Brown; I was about 10 years old, and Chris Brown was just big; he still is one of my idols now.

Music has always been in my family down to my dad through my uncle. I'm just the next generation, since it's always been around me when I was younger when I looked up to my mom and dad, to Michael Jackson, and B2K was my favorite band growing up.

Keep God first, chase your dreams, and everything will pay off.

It feels great seeing posters everywhere, and bus stops promoting 'Black Nativity,' and billboards in Los Angeles. It's overwhelming. I can't wait for everybody to see what I got.

When you love what you do, you just really fall in love with it. Sometimes you record a lot more songs than the album will even hold. You record like 300 songs and only 12 songs go on the album. It takes time. But if you love what you do, it works out.

There was a bidding war between Epic Records and Jive - now RCA - which was bittersweet. Just having labels bid over me was really cool, but I ended up going with Jive because it felt better over there, and they have my favorite artists like Usher, Chris Brown, and Justin Timberlake.

I was in a movie called 'Vanishing on 7th Street,' and that was my first leading role in a movie. It's an apocalyptic thriller, and it's really cool. It's the first movie I ever shot.