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.

I don't really see myself as an actor.

Music in Africa often contains messages. Music in Senegal, and Africa, is never music for music's sake or solely for entertainment. It's always a vehicle for social connections, discussions and ideas.

If you come from Africa with your economic poverty and your cultural riches, and you meet someone like Peter Gabriel or a person from a big record company, and they tell you that what you are doing is marvelous, that makes you feel powerful.

I don't want to see that two-tier Senegal, that two-tier Africa, when you have those at the top and those at the bottom, people who are hungry, people who do not have enough to eat.

I really want to bring the message of love that is Islam to people; bring something new to that familiar face.

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