My music is like a spinning ball. It can turn in one direction, and then it comes back to origins.

I want to use my music to deliver a political message and sometimes to denounce, but I don't want to be a politician.

I have studied at the school of the world.

I think people should know more of Africa in terms of its joie de vivre, its feeling for life. In spite of the images that one knows about Africa - the economic poverty, the corruption - there's a joy to living and a happiness in community, living together, in community life, which may be missing here in America.

I respect music, I do. I love it.

World music is about taking things from different places and bringing them together - which is great.

I'm a modern Muslim. I pray, and if I have a question, I ask someone who is more educated in the religion than me.