I was in an a cappella group in school, so it particularly helped me keep my piano chops up.

There's a certain confidence that comes with being sure about the way the world works.

In the 1970s, for all the Stevie Wonders, I'm sure there were five artists that were making forgettable music.

When we see people that are impoverished and people who are dealt an unfair hand, then if we have the power to help them, we should try to do that.

But in my mind I've always been a solo artist- I've just been working with a lot of great people like Kanye and Alicia Keys and Jay-Z.

We want to do things that are interesting, great storytelling, some of it is gonna be more fun and funny, some of it is more serious and talking about interesting issues that we think are provocative and interesting to us. Kind of on a more political level. But, you know, just things that we find interesting that we think stories that need to be told.

I listen to all those kinds of music, from classic soul to hip-hop to Brazilian music to, you know, jazz to indie to alternative. So whatever. I listen to all if it. Classic rock and classic pop, all of that.