I love doing things that people don't expect.

My grandma Ricky - that's where I got classic look from. She was the most stylish person ever. She had her own clothing store and even her furniture was stylish. I got my "Flashy, but classy" motto from her, too. Whenever she walked in the room, she was always the most stylish person in the room.

I was a hip-hop head. When I really found my own lane in music, it was hip-hop. I wanted to make hip-hop music. And I did, I made a lot of hip-hop music.

I make soul music for hip-hop heads. It's music I'd want to sample if I were a rapper.

That's one of the most important things to me is that Detroit and Ann Arbor got my back. If you don't have hometown love, then what's the point?

I really love rap music. I grew up in the '80s and '90s with Public Enemy, N.W.A., LL Cool J - I'm a hip-hop encyclopedia. But I got kind of frustrated with the chauvinistic side of rap music, the one that makes it hard to write songs about love and relationships.

I think that what happens is that all of my modern influences blend together with the older soul influences and you get Mayer Hawthorne.