My mother always told me to embrace both sides of my background. And she also taught me one very useful thing when I was going to first grade. She said, "You're Bahamian and African-American on one side, and Russian-Jewish on the other. You're no more one than the other, and it's beautiful that you have all this. It makes your life all the more rich. But society will see you only as black."

The story that I wanna tell is pretty much about the way I grew up. Being bi-racial, growing up in a big city and being an artist.

Everything that I make I use.

The loyalty rate isn't that high. I could have a big hit, then put out the next single, and they say, Oh yeah, who are you? Prove it again.

I had no idea 'The Hunger Games' was so big. I didn't even know the book. I had been living under my own rock.

I found it a really refreshing change of pace to suddenly be completely directed. It was a type of collaboration that I don't normally have.

I mean, there are only so many notes. What makes something original is how you put it together.