I went to Catholic school my entire life. Elementary school was probably my worst time - those are the years when you're figurin' out who you are, and then you've got the added pressure of being on the light-skinned side of things. I've been around - excuse me saying - predominantly white people in Catholic school, who sit around and just talk about black people because they thought they were in the presence of themselves, and they used to talk cool. I felt firsthand the racial prejudice that is still alive today.

I hope to encourage some people out there, especially all the mixed, curly-headed babies of the world, stand up, we are here! But just people in general, it really doesn't matter. Judge a man on his actions, his words, not the color of his skin or the race, or where he grew up.

Am I one part R&B? Sure, but I'm also part soulful, and I'm old school funk, I'm pop, I'm rock, I'm hip hop, I'm all of those things. I don't wanna be categorized or labeled as just one thing. Don't put me in the box because I'll break out of the box.

I've been in situations where I was 'black boy white,' or 'white boy black.' People didn't know, "Is he the whitest black person in the world or is he the blackest white person in the world?"

Believe me, I'm in no shape, fashion, or form a star or anything like that right now. I can walk down the street and it's fine. I never have my 'fro out on an off-day, though. Definitely keep the hoodie on, or the do-rag or whatever.

I went to Catholic school my entire life. Elementary school was probably my worst time - those are the years when you're figurin' out who you are, and then you've got the added pressure of being on the light-skinned side of things. I've been around - excuse me saying - predominantly white people in Catholic school, who sit around and just talk about black people because they thought they were in the presence of themselves, and they used to talk cool. I felt firsthand the racial prejudice that is still alive today.