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.

You see all these things that make you feel desperate or sad, but you realize changes can be made, and it doesn't take a lot of money on our part to make a change in people's lives.

I don't feel like that many musicians are competitive with each other.

Anybody under the age of forty knows hip-hop, gospel and R&B pretty well, and it's all a part of what we consider to be 'black music.' There is a natural synergy between the three.

Sometimes success is just limited to festival circuit.

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

We should care about what is going on in the world.