My career has been a gradual climb. I think that's part of the reason why I've had longevity.

I'm always sort of reflecting on what I do on what I've done. Usually before I make a new album, I'll listen to the previous albums just to see where I've been.

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."

My mother gave lots of good advice and had a lot to say. As you get older, you realize everything she said was true.

I was taught by my grandfather that anything that your mind can conceive, you can have. It's a reality.

They think I'm being serious when actually I'm a very big clown. But you have to know me to see that. I'm constantly cracking up and cracking everybody else around me up.

Music is my life, it is a reflection of what I go through.