I don't want kids listening to my music thinking it's for their parents. I want them to feel it's theirs.

I try to make sure that I make music that can stand the test of time.

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.

My intentions with any of my music is to keep it futuristic and updated and be experimental and try new things.

James Brown is the perfect example of flashy but classy. Classy doesn't have to mean boring. His gear was flamboyant but without being so over the top. The cape was probably the biggest part of his persona. He looked like Superman.

Hip-hop was my first real love, one that was my own and wasn't my parents' music. Initially, I was inspired by hip-hop fashion. Over the years, I kept the hip-hop sensibility, but make it my own.

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