Being with the Dap-Kings is like being an athlete.

I sing because I'm happy.

I'm grateful to be alive, because I really did not think I was going to be alive, onstage performing songs.

[I've worked as a guard at Rikers Island] from 1988 to 1990.

I'm singing, you know, because I'm happy and I'm free.

Play with me and you play with fire.

As for me, I rarely write a song. But when I do write a song, like "Ain't No Chimneys in the Projects," which came to me at three a.m. one morning, on a whim - I get a percentage.