It's like half the campaign of selling a record is trying to convince people that you're an artist. Well, I am an artist. This is what I do.

I want to talk about things that are tangible and real to me, but I also want to do them in a way that's poetic and artistic.

I don't know if I'm attention deficit, but I certainly am easily distracted by other things.

I'm not an L.A. guy. I don't take meetings - you know what I mean? I don't really know how to interact very well with people in L.A. because everybody's got an agenda and everybody's like, "What do you do?" "Where are you going?" Or it's like, "What do you know?" And I'm not on a grind - I was there to make music and to meet people but I wasn't hustling for anything.

You get one chance to make an impression and coasting through is a disservice.

My love of R&B and hip-hop has influenced my life not even as a musician, but generally in terms of growing up and looking to America as an inspiration.

I have a vision for everything that I make, but... I'm not that considerate about what I do. I do whatever is in my head and how it ends up tends to be the thing that it's supposed to be. It was never a premeditated decision.