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My Fourth Mother, My Godmother, She Passed Away A Couple Years Ago - Her Name Was Gwen. She Was The Theater Director Over At The Gym Where I Grew Up And Learned About All Those Awesome Things I Told You About Already. She Was The One Who Taught Me Terms Like "upstage" And "downstage," All Those Technical Things About The Art Of What I Do - How To Breathe What I See, How To Move. They Were All Her Tactics, Not Anything Learned Or Given To Me Through A Theory, But Rather By Her Natural Abilities.

-Erykah Badu

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My Fourth Mother, My

Erykah Badu

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My Fourth Mother, My Godmother, She Passed Away A Couple Years Ago - Her Name Was Gwen. She Was The Theater Director Over At The Gym Where I Grew Up And Learned About All Those Awesome Things I Told You About Already. She Was The One Who Taught Me Terms Like "upstage" And "downstage," All Those Technical Things About The Art Of What I Do - How To Breathe What I See, How To Move. They Were All Her Tactics, Not Anything Learned Or Given To Me Through A Theory, But Rather By Her Natural Abilities.

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I'm A Complete Human Being. I'm Very Emotional And Loving. I Feel, I Hurt, I Give, I Take, And Also I Think. I Analyze. I'm A Sociologist, Anthropologist.

Man, I Don't Want To Have Nothing To Do With Computers. I Don't Want The Government In My Business.

Hip-hop Was Created Out Of Necessity. We Needed To Create Some Digitized Things To Help Us Understand What We Were Feeling.

Following Your Heart Also Means Eliminating The Things That No Longer Evolve You.

The Metal Or The Stone That's Helping Me .i'll Incorporate Them Into Anything I Wear - But I Think It's About Accessories More Than Anything, Because It's How You Accessorize Yourself That Gives You Your Own Unique Style.

And I Figured Out That The Reason I Couldn't Get Through The Day As Well As I Can Now Is Because I Had Too Many Things On My Mind, On My Plate, You Know, For One Person To Have. So I Started To Eliminate Some Of The Things That Were Too Heavy To Carry And Unnecessary.

I Actually Started Writing It Because I Was Inspired By My Own Personal Growth.

As Erykah Badu, It Has Nothing To Do With Me, The Way I Look, My Hair Wrap, My Style, It's About You And What You Feel For My Music. If I Can Make You Feel Like The Way That People Who Influenced Me Made Me Feel, That's Completion.

Some People Come Up And Ask For An Autograph And Don't Even Look At Me. They're Like, 'here, Do It.' That Don't Bother Me, But It Doesn't Open My Heart.

The Girls Just Like To Be In The Shoes. They Like To Scuff Up The Floors And Walk Around In High-heeled Shoes That Are Too Big For Them, All Over The House.

I Consider My Musical Ability To Be A Gift From The Creator. It's Not That I Try To Work Hard Or Nothing Like That, It's A Gift, It Was Given To Me, And I Appreciate It.

Musical Ability

I Bring The Staple Of My Culture.

Hip-hop Is Not Something We Do, It's Something We Live. It's The Way We Dress, The Way We Talk... Everybody Bobbing To The Same Beat. It's A Culture, And You Have To Find Your Own Place In That Culture. Top 10 Or Top 40 Can't Dictate That. They Can Only Dictate What's Marketable.

I Mean Thats A Big Part Of Our Existence Here On Earth, The Personal Relationship We Have With The Person That We Love, With The Person That We Make Love To, With The Person That We Share Our Lives With. We Expect A Lot Of Things Back From Our Loved One, And The Lesson Is To Accept And Not Expect.

[riccardo Tisci ] Has An Interesting Approach To Weaving The Contemporary With The Couture, And Blending Tribes And Collections. It Always Seems To Work.

I Could Do A Few More Sit-ups And My Waistline Would Be Less Difficult.

I Think What Makes People Think That Is Because Of Things People Write. It Really Doesn't Have Anything To Do With The Artist.

All I Want To Do Is Give The World My Heart... Record Label Tryina Make Me Compromise My Art.

Vegan Food Is Soul Food In Its Truest Form. Soul Food Means To Feed The Soul. And, To Me, Your Soul Is Your Intent. If Your Intent Is Pure, You Are Pure.

From Then On, I Realized This Is What I Want To Do, What I'm Supposed To Do: Giving Energy And Receiving It Back Through Applause. I Love It. That's My World. I Love It. I Enjoy It. I Live For It.

I Can Be Erykah The Human Being More Than The Celebrity.

Artists Need Some Kind Of Stimulating Experience A Lot Of Times, Which Crystallizes When You Sing About It Or Paint It Or Sculpt It. You Literally Mold The Experience The Way You Want. It's Therapy.

Hopefully My Music Is Medicine, Some Type Of Antidote For Something Or Some Kind Of Explanation Or Just To Feel Good.

People Are Uncomfortable With Sexuality That’s Not For Male Consumption.

The Reason Why You Don't See People Looking Like Me Is Because I Don't Encourage That. I Encourage You To Be You.

Society Has A Problem With Female Nudity When It Is Not . . . ”—badu Pauses To Get Her Words Together; She Wants This Point To Be Very Clear—“. . . When It Is Not Packaged For The Consumption Of Male Entertainment. Then It Becomes Confusing.

I Have Advice For People - Period - Who Are In Unhealthy Relationships: Follow Your Heart. It Will Get You To Where You Need To Be. Sometimes It's Hard, Sometimes It's Easy, The Places That Your Heart Takes You. But Continue To Follow It. Where The Train Leads You - You'll Get There.

I Was Born To Make Mistakes, I Ain't Scared To Take The Weight.

I Know The Community Mostly For Its Art And Culture... And Of Course Its Food, I Eat At Their Restaurants." "they Make You Feel Like Taking Off Your Shoes... It Feels Like Home.

I Grew Up With All Mothers, All Women. I Come From A Long Line Of Matriarchs, Very Strong Women.

I Think We [with Riccardo Tisci] Share A Sensibility About Art - We Pull From The Ancient Future.

All The Women In My Family Were Very Creative.

I Just Love Expressing My Joy And My Mind Through What I Wear, Or How I Cook, Or How I Dance, Or How I Write Or Perform A Song - How I Move.

It's Almost Like A Lot Of Black People In America, A Lot Of Young Black Men, Are Born With This Cloud Over Their Heads. It's Their Penitentiary Cloud, This Philosophy We All Have, That It's Harder For Us.

My Fourth Mother, My Godmother, She Passed Away A Couple Years Ago - Her Name Was Gwen. She Was The Theater Director Over At The Gym Where I Grew Up And Learned About All Those Awesome Things I Told You About Already. She Was The One Who Taught Me Terms Like "upstage" And "downstage," All Those Technical Things About The Art Of What I Do - How To Breathe What I See, How To Move. They Were All Her Tactics, Not Anything Learned Or Given To Me Through A Theory, But Rather By Her Natural Abilities.

Hip-hop Is Bigger Than The Government.

I'm Free. I Just Do What I Want, Say What I Want, Say How I Feel, And I Don't Try To Hurt Nobody. I Just Try To Make Sure That I Don't Compromise My Art In Any Kind Of Way, And I Think People Respect That.

I'm Pretty Mutable As A Human Being.

What Opens My Heart Is When My Son Wakes Me Up In The Morning, Nudging Me And Saying, 'mommy, Mommy!'

I Don't Have Any Particular Thing I Do Ritualistically. I Do The Same Thing Every Day. I Get Up. Drink A Lot Of Water. Have A Wheatgrass Shot. Drink Some Green Juice. Eat As Healthy As I Can.

I Think [ Fashion Philosophy] It's About Your Smile And Your Smell.

I Take The Same Approach In All Genres Of Art, Across The Board. It's Intuitive.

I Don't Plan How Many People I Work With. I Don't Charge Anything. It's For My Own Learning, And I Just Enjoy Being The Welcoming Committee. I Became A Doula By Default.

My Fifth Mother Is Mother Nature - The Things I Had To Learn On My Own, The Understanding I Had To Come To And Still Have To Come To As A Young Woman, As A Responsible Mother, A Responsible Granddaughter And Child. She Teaches Me Willpower, Honesty, And The Things We Need To Heal Ourselves From Moment To Moment.

I'm Not Trying To Win An Award For Being The Best Vegetarian, Just Want To Be Healthy. Take A Salt Bath. Do Things That My Parents Were Never Able To Do. I'm Blessed To Do Anything I Want So I Decide To Take The Best Care Of My Body And My Family In The Same Way. Holistically. Vitally.

If We Were Made In His Image Then Call Us By Our Names. Most Intellects Do Not Believe In God But They Fear Us Just The Same

Well, If You Look At All Of The Cultures In America, This Is A Great Opportunity For Us To Really Get Acquainted With The Rest Of The World. America Is The Only Place You Can Do That, But We Don't Have Sense Enough To Take Advantage Of That.

I Try To Be Honest And I Keep Moving.

If You Make A Decision, A Pact With Someone, Your Friend, You Should Say, 'i'm Gonna Do This,' And You Should Stick To It.

I Don't Feel Like I Need To Preach To The World Or Nothing Like That. I Just Feel Like I Share What I Say, And If Listeners Get It, They Get It. And I Never Underestimate The Audience's Ability To Feel Me.

I Think People Who Vibrate At The Same Frequency, Vibrate Toward Each Other. They Call It - In Science - Sympathetic Vibrations.

We're All Friends, Inside The Music And Outside The Music. I Mean, We Don't Sound Anything Alike, We Don't Approach Our Music Anything Alike, But We Come From The Same Genuine Place. We Want Our Music To Be Real And We Don't Want To Compromise Our Art.

My Girls Are Very Fashionable. They Have A Very Good Eye For Marrying Style And Fashion.

My Eyes Are Green, Cause I Eat A Lot Of Vegetables, It Don't Have Nothing To Do With Your New Friend

I've Had Two Children. I've Had Three Boyfriends. I've Had A Lot Of Things Happen That Can Change Your Opinions And Values And Philosophies.

I'm Learning From Them! Everyone Says That, But It's True. You Learn More About Yourself From Them Than From Any Other Lesson.

I'm A Product Of Its [american] Teaching, Of Its Thinking, Of Its -isms, Of Its Religion, Of Its Education. I Am Conditioned, Raised And Developed By America; I Am America. And As It Changes, My Thoughts Also Change. Because No Matter What I Believe, What The Powers-that-be Believe Will Affect Me.

Through [my Children] Patience, They're Showing Me How Much They Support What's Going On, Because I'm Having To Do A Lot Of Work Right Now.

I Don't Require Sex For Happiness - I Need Companionship. I Need A Partner I Can Depend On, That I Can Love And Grow With.

I'd Rather See A Person With A Natural Mind And Processed Mind Than A Processed Mind And A Natural Head.

I Have A Daughter Who's Four, Who's Dainty And Princess-esque. I Still Get To Dress Her Like My Little Accessory. I Think I Have One More Year To Do That, Then She's Going To Get Her Own Ideas - So I Better Move Quickly!

The Kind Of Music Or The Kind Of Arrangements That I Do, The Kind Of Musicians I Choose, Is Just What I Like To Hear.

I Believed In Myself, And I've Always Worked Very, Very Hard As An Artist, And I Am An Artist In Every Sense Of The Word.

I Have So Much Music That I Do. Just Like How A Visual Artist Is Always Sketching Something But They Might Not Share It, I'm Always Writing Songs Or Coming Up With Melodic Lines On Piano Or Guitar. It's Therapy. It's Always Happening.

I Don't Know... I've Been Doing It For 17 Years Now, So Of Course I've Seen Pictures And Thought, "oh My God, I Wish I Would've Never Worn That." Yeah, But I Did! And It Was Probably Because It Was My Favorite Thing At The Time - My Clothes Always Have Some Kind Of Emotion Attached To Them.

I View My Hair And Clothes As Functional Art.

I Know That I Want To Concentrate More On My Inside-pretty Than My Outside-pretty, Because Thats Gonna Go Away. But If Your Inside Is Beautiful, It Never Wears Away. The Light Always Shows On The Outside If You Are Striving To Be Good Inside.

I Strongly Believe That The More Positive My Vibration Is, The Clearer My Message Will Be. I Keep My Negative Thoughts From Infiltrating My Pathway And My Dreams. Other People's Thoughts Are None Of My Business.

I Love Watching Rihanna In Fashion. I Like To See Her Take Chances And Risks. I Like Seeing Naomi Campbell In The Forefront. They're Both Women Who Stand Out And Use Their Bodies As Canvases To Introduce This Functional Art To The World. They Carry It In A Way That Is Very Inspiring.

My Hair Is An Aesthetic Choice… At The Same Time, How You Wear Your Hair Is A Political Statement As Well.

I Love To Leave The Interpretation Of My Music Up To The Listener. It's Fun To See What They'll Say It Is

My First, My Birth Mother - Her Name Is Queenie - She Gave Me A Powerful Medicine When I Was A Child. She Told Me That, "i Was The Best," And It Helped Me So Much.

I'm More Like An Oven Than A Microwave.

What A Frequency What A Voice. I Love Bilal. I Couldn't Imagine A Music World Without His Voice.

I Think Giving Is A Blind Act That Should Come From A Part Of Me That Sees No Discrimination (that's Why I Called It "blind").

The Wise Healer Endures The Pain. Cry. Tears Bring Joy.

I Solidify His [ Riccardo Tisci] Vision And What He Is Trying To Manifest, Make It A Crystal Or Solid Thing Because Of The Relationship I Have With My Culture And What My Music Means To Him.

My Truth Is Relevant And My Songs Are Relevant, But I Have To Recalibrate Myself And Speed Up My Vibrations So That I Can Communicate With The Voice Of This Generation.

This Generation

I Have An Organization Called Blind [beautiful Love Incorporated Nonprofit Development], So Named Because Even Though My Interest Is In The Black Community, Because That's Where I Grew Up And That's Where I'm Most Skilled In Fixing Things, It Doesn't End There.

But Now I Realize That This Record Business Really Needs Me. No One Else Is Trying To Take A Chance Or Do Something Different.

I Have An Apartment In Brooklyn - I Guess I Call It My Shrine. I Go There To Create And Recoup, Or Hibernate Sometimes, But My Home Is In Dallas Where I Live With My Children.

I Don't Read Music Or Anything, So When I Produce, I Go Basically By Ear.

I'm Kind Of A Recluse When It Comes To Going Outside.

Whenever I Think About Funk Music, It Has A Look - And That's How It Sounds.

Personally, I Don't Choose Any Particular Religion Or Symbol Or Group Of Words Or Teachings To Define Me. That's Between Me And The Most High. You Know, My Higher Self. The Creator.

I Planned My Success. I Knew It Was Going To Happen.

Congratulations

[the Land] Is A Film That Just Happens To Be Directed And Written By A Puerto Rican Guy With A Black Dad. It Seemed Like A Very Natural, Human Interaction Between People Who All Just Came From One Common Cesspool Of Bad Luck.

We As Black People Have To Tell Our Own Stories. We Have To Document Our History. When We Allow Someone Else To Document Our History The History Becomes Twisted And We Get Written Out. We Get Our Noses Blown Off.

I Don't Sing Melodically. Rhyme Pattern Is How I Sing. I Also Write Like A Lyricist Or An Mc Because That's What I Was Before I Was A Singer. I Just Took Those Elements And Put Them Into Music.

I Don't Know If I'll Ever Accomplish Most Of My Dreams - I Have So Many.

I'm Pretty Mutable As A Human Being, Period - If You Put Me On Pluto, I Can Figure It Out.

It's Just That Little Box In The Middle Of Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Most Of The Time I Go I Don't Even Leave That Apartment. I Have Just Enough: A Little Bed, A Little Kitchen With Two Pots. I Make Some Tea And I Look Out The Window Or Just Lay Down.

André And I Are Still Best Of Friends, Always Have Been And Always Will Be. When Our 18-year-old Son, Seven, Started High School, We Both Agreed To Be In The Same City, So André Is In Dallas All The Time, And We're Always All Together Doing Something.

Erykah Badu Projects Don't Even Sound Like Erykah Badu Projects. I Don't Even Have One Album That Sounds Like Another One Of My Albums.

It Just Works Better For Me To Discriminate Between Which Thoughts Are Mine And Which Come From Elsewhere, Before I Even Talk About Them Or Express Them - It Helps To Keep Me Focused On My Path.

There Are Millions And Billions Of Atoms Of Memory Of All Kinds Of Musical Themes In Me.

My Favorite Jewelry, It's Just What I'm Feeling At The Time.

It's Weird, But If I Decide To Do An Album, Then The Ideas Start Fitting Themselves Together. I Consider Myself A Nice, Slow Burn. Plus, It's Not A Race. And I Have A Lot To Share.

I Create My Own Calm And I Keep My Balance, Because I Know That It's Not Really Me, By Myself... The Creator Always Gives Me The Energy.

In The Morning, Instead Of Saying To Yourself, ‘i Got To Wake Up’ Say ‘i Get To Wake Up!’

Because You're Responsible For [children]. You Are There To Protect Them, Not Possess Them. I Tell Them, "watch Me And You Might Learn Something."

My Style Is A Little Masculine, And What I Loved About Pyer Moss Was How Well He Can Make A Blazer, The Looseness Of Those Pants, Or Color Palette That He Chooses From Season To Season.

What Singing Means To Me, I Never Did Consider Myself A Singer, I Just Let People Watch Me Feel Music And How It Comes Through Me. I've Worked On It And Practiced A Lot. I Mean, Music, I Dance To It, And Singing Is Just One Way Of Getting It Out Of Me.

I Go Through Phases Of Stuff.

What I Like About Houses Like Givenchy. It's Easy To Pull From. With Givenchy You Can Accessorize To Build Anything, Any Look.

What I Work Hard At Doing Is Staying On A Path Of Being Kind And Showing And Proving That I'm A Good Person To Society. That's Hard. The Talent, That's A Gift. I Just Came Here Like That.

I Lived In New York For Maybe A Year And A Half, From '95 To '97, But I Live In Dallas. My Whole Family Is There.

I'm A Recovering Undercover Over-lover.

All Of My Children Are The Same Way I Am. They're Little Artists Too, In Their Own Ways.

What Draws Me To A Project Is How Sympathetic I Am Toward It, So That I Can Relax Into It And Give Up Myself.

You Don't Have To Believe Everything You Think.

I'm A Pisces, So I'm A Very Closed-book Kind Of Person.

I'm In Training To Become A Midwife. I'm Almost There And Before I Know It I'll Be Able To Open My Own Practice, If That's What I Desire.

I Love Putting The Music Together. It's Like Art

My Work As A Doula Also Extends All The Way To The End Of Life. I Sit At The Bedsides Of People Who Are Passing On In Hospices Or Nursing Homes, For The People And Families Who Want That Kind Of Thing.

I'm A Performance Artist First; I'm A Recording Artist Second.

Breathing Becomes Really Easy When You're Laughing. It Kick Starts That Feeling Of Joy.

I Live In A Queendom, Ruled By A Womb-iverse.

I Feel Like I Haven't Done Anything. What Have I Done? I've Just Made A Few Records.

A Home Birth Is About Being Able To Create Exactly What You Want, Because It's Such A Violent Moment Inside Of The Body That You Want Everything Else To Be As Beautiful As It Can Be.

...when It Come To Da: " What It Do?! I Don't Fall For Da: "woop- Tee- Woooo!

I Was Sitting At Home One Day And I Got A Call That Riccardo Tisci Was Considering Me For The Face Of The Givenchy Spring/summer 2014 Campaign, And I Said, "are You Kidding?" And That Was The End Of The Conversation. I'm A Really Big Fan.

He Definitely Does What A Partner Is Supposed To Do, That Is, Evolve You.

I'm Not Satisfied With The Explanations I Get From Tv Or From School.

When It Comes To Fashion Or Any High Art, You Have To Have A Combination Of Delicacy, Along With Taste.

I Don't Have One Song That Sounds Like Another One In My Entire Catalog.

I Really Enjoy Being The Child's 'welcoming Committee' And To Help Someone Usher His Or Her Spirit Into The World In A Very Peaceful Way Is Very Effortless To Me.

When You're In A Relationship You Want It To Work. My Parents Did, I Did. But We Are Not Taught How To Make It Work.

What Does Music Mean To Me? I Don't Think I Would Really Be Much Without It, Without It Coming Through Me. It's My Means Of Communication, My Means Of Growth, My Means Of Transportation From One Point In My Life To Another.

I Have A Pinterest, And If You Look There You'll See The Things I Really Like And Adore, Have Crushes On, And There's A Lot Of Stuff From Riccardo's [tisci] Line On There.

I Come From A Long Line Of Matriarchal Women, And My Greatest Teachers Were My Mothers.

Better Think While It's Still Legal.

Being Honest Is My Job. That's What Music Is For Me.

What Makes Me Furious, Not Just Because We're In An Interview, But I Don't Like When Writers Take Your Words And Put Them Somewhere Else, In The Wrong Context In Their Own Article About You.

I Have The Ability To Sing With Emotion And Feeling, But If You Say I Sound Like Billie Holiday, That's Cool. Let's Look At Who Billie Was: She Was This Person, This Singer, This Beautiful Diva Who Could Move The Audience With The Slightest Gesture Of Her Hand.

I Think That When Riccardo Tisci Wanted To Bring More Attention To The Lack Of African American Presence On The Runway, He Also Wanted To Bring Attention To The Lack Of A Sensibility Of African And Asian Art.

African American

I Am Not Systematic At All When It Comes To Religion. I Just Love Life. And I'm Not Judgmental. And I'm A Vegetarian.

I Think The Job Of An Artist Is To Be Honest And Fearless.

My Third Mother Is My Paternal Grandmother. Her Name Is Viola. She Gave Me My Sense Of Knowing Why, Or Knowing Why It Was Important To Ask Why. She Made Me Understand That I Don't Have To Believe Everything I Hear.

I'm Not Trying To Win An Award For Being The Best Vegetarian, Just Want To Be Healthy.

When I Get Ready To Do An Album, That Means I Have Something To Say For The Sake Of Words, And I Listen Back To All Of The Things I've Been Creating And Pull Things From Out Of The Air To Go With Them. It's Almost Like I Start Creating The Album Before I Even Think About Creating It.

My Paternal Grandmother Gave Me The Courage To Investigate Things And Not Take Things At Face Value Or Judge People By What I First Imagine Them To Be.

Things Are Useless Without Practice.

I Got A Call From A Mutual Friend Of Ours, Charles King, Who's Also The Executive Producer. [steven Caple Jr And I] Had A Conversation About It. I Read It. We Kind Of Finished Each Other's Sentences When It Came To The Nuances And Personality Flaws That The Character Had, And Some Stereotypes And Things We Were Trying To Stay Away From. We Agreed On That As Well. He Just Kind Of Allowed Me To Run Rampant With The Ideas. As We Paced Ourselves Through, We Developed Turquoise.

I'm A Woman Who Has Gone Through Many Heartaches, Enough To Dedicate My Whole Life To Trying To Figure Them Out.

If You Want To Relate To A Certain Audience Or Generation, You Have To Speak Their Language. I Truly Believe That.

Peace And Blessings Manifest With Every Lesson Learned. If Your Knowledge Were Your Wealth Then It Would Be Well Earned.

I Think A Lot Of People Have Lost Respect For The Individual, You Know, The Individual, The Person Who Doesn't Conform.

Poor Is The New Black.

I Remember When I Signed With Kedar Entertainment Through Universal Records. It Was My First Record Deal And It's The One I Still Have Now. At That Time, There Had Been A Couple Of Opportunities I Was Almost Given, But At The Last Minute The Giver Came Back And Told Me It Couldn't Happen.

Different Periods, Different Cultures - It's Just The Way My Mind Works. My Music Is That Way As Well. There's A Foundation But The Inspiration Comes From Everywhere. I've Been Influenced By So Many Things.

I Don't Think It Matters What School You Go To, But I Think It's Important For Parents To Be Involved. And To Know That When School Stops, Learning Continues, And To Continue Teaching At Home.

This Pain To Remain The Same Outweigh The Pain To Change... When You Get Tired Enough Is When You Begin To Want To Sacrifice Everything Inside Of You—the Fear Just Leaves

They Play It Safe, Are Quick To Assassinate What They Do Not Understand. They Move In Packs, Ingesting More And More Fear With Every Act Of Hate On One Another.

My Second Mother Is My Maternal Grandmother. Her Name Is Thelma. She Also Gave Me A Very Powerful Medicine; She Made Sure That I Knew My Role As A Young Lady And As Someone With Moral Structures And Principles. She Taught Me That If I Was Going To Be Involved With Anything, Whether It Be Spirituality, Music, Or Some Skill, That I Have To Practice.

Hip-hop Is The People. What The People Are Moving Toward Is What Hip-hop Is. I Think People Are Moving Toward A Freer Way Of Thinking. Openness.

A Lot Of People Have Dementia, Which Is Great, Because Then They Don't Recognize Me.

I Had The Opportunity, As A Child, To Grow Up In A Community Center Where I Was Exposed To Theater, Music, Art, And Computer Science; Things That I Would Have Never Had The Opportunity To Even Meet Had It Not Been For Those People Taking Time Out Of Their Schedules, Helping Us As Children To Travel All Over The World While Sitting In A Gymnasium. That's What I Did Before I Was A Musician, Before I Was A Recording Artist, I Was A Teacher And A Community Leader.

I'll Dabble Here And There In Different Forms Of The Art, But The Label Has Me Locked Down Like A Slave So, Of Course, I'll Be Doing Albums During This Time

That's The Moment I Learned That The More You Believe In Yourself, The Stronger The Vibration Touches Someone Else, And Things Begin To Happen The Way You Dreamed That They Would.

Now My Record Deal Helps Me To Do Things For Free Or Give More Time To My Community Than I Could Otherwise.

We Were All Born, And We All Came To The Music Business With Everything We Had. Some Of Us Just Don't Get A Chance. Now There's A Lot Of Other People Like Myself, Indeed, Who Are Getting Heard Worldwide. That Gives Other Artists A Chance.

If You Invite Negativity In, You Have To Feed It And Hang Out With It. Best Not To Invite It In.

Be You. Make Sure You're Saying Something When You're Saying Something. It's Important To Sound Like You, To Feel Like You, To Be Like You. Be You.

I Don't Know Why, It's Just What I Feel Inside, The Thoughts That I Sing About. It's Just My Truth. Sometimes My Emotions Can Be Mistaken For Messages.

Even If The Project Requires You To Have All The Ducks In A Line, I Can't Do That. I Don't Create Way.

I Was The Bohemian In My Family, The "this Is My Favorite Shoe And I Don't Care If It Has Tape Around It" Kind Of Person. The Tape Could Become A Fashion Statement. Or A Political Statement.

I Thought It Was Cool How [ Riccardo Tisci] Wanted To Blend Africa And Asia Because They Relate To Each Other In So Many Different Ways.

My Mom Was The Diana Ross Of Our Clan. She Was Always Up-to-date, And Always Knew What To Do And What Not To Do In A Fashion Sense.

Honey Isn't Really That Good For You.

They Usually Have A Piano In Every Nursing Home, And I Always Wanted To Perform For Whoever Would Listen When I Learned Something. I Grew To Understand Very Early That A Lot Of These People Who Are In Nursing Homes Are Elderly And Don't Have A Lot Of Things That Give Them Joy From Day To Day.

I Have A Pair Of Blue Pants That Were My Favorite For A While And Were A Part Of My Show Uniform - Every Night, You Know.

Marvin Gaye Is One Of My Favorite Revolutionaries. He Spoke From His Heart, His Mind. That's What I Want To Do.

I Thought The Billie Holiday Comparison Was Beautiful. I Think, Wow, What A Wonderful, Creative, Helpful Spirit. She's Someone Who Wanted To Help Others By Sharing Her Emotion. That's What I Do, Too, So I Think That's A Great Comparison.

I Really Can't Say What Inspires Me The Most, Because I'm Inspired By Just About Everything. My Feelings And Relationships, My Family, Scooby-doo. Opinion Of My Work. Everything. Not Just One Thing.

Im A Hip-hopper, And Its Something You Live And Do. It Makes Me Angry That Were Misrepresented, That Were Being Killed Every Day By One Another, By The Government, By The Food We Eat, The Choices We Make. It Makes Me Angry Because It Doesnt Have To Be That Way And It Is.

I Don't Want To Think Too Much About How I'm Carving And What I'm Carving - You Are Just Carving Away The Excess Clay And There's A Piece Underneath There. And It's Kind Of Like Getting Out Of The Way. Maybe That's What The Commonality Is: It's Getting Out Of The Way So That The Art Can Speak.

I Grew Up Listening To Old Soul

I Knew It Would Happen. I Knew I'd Be No. 1. I'm A New Artist; I Don't Know The Rules. Nobody Told Me It Wouldn't Happen

I'm Only In Competition With My Last Level. It Don't Have Nothing To Do With Music Or Anything. And The Last Level Is Hard Competition, The Last Place You Were.

When People Are Going On To The Next Plateau Of Whatever This Thing Is Called Life, I Also Want Them To Breathe Easily, Even If It's The Last One They Take Here With Us. I Guess I'm The Welcoming Committee And Ushering Committee.

The Light Always Shows On The Outside If You Are Striving To Be Good On The Inside.

I Encourage Breaking Free Of Self Inflicted Holding Pens. I Encourage The Use Of Intelligence In Every Decision. I Encourage Creating.

I Love Being An Entertainer - Not Really Fond Of Being A Celebrity.

The Man That Knowz Something Knowz That He Knowz Nothing At All.

Anything That Had To Do With Art I Been Doing All My Life. It Was A Gift. It's Nothing I Work Real Hard At Doing.

Now Keep In Mind That I'm An Artist And I'm Sensitive About My Sh*t

I Started Performing At Two Or Three On A Tape Recorder, One Of Those Little Flat Recorders Where You Just Push Play And Record.

So The Most Natural Thing To Me Is To Stay As Pure To Or Real To Or Close To Who I Am As Possible.

People Who Say That Music Is Dead Or Hip-hop Is Dead Are Refusing To Evolve.

Time To Eliminate Things That No Longer Evolve Me.

I'm Just Being Who I Am And Expressing Myself As Everyone Else Does.

I Have A Master Plan As An Artist. I've Always Said I'm Not Going To Be Punching Nobody's Clock. I Will Work As An Artist To Survive In This World.

No One Chooses To Raise Children Alone.

I Just Keep Going. When The Water's Too Still, I Start Splashing Around And Things Jump Out Of The Water.

Don't Let Anybody Infiltrate Your Dream

We Literally Just Finished Making This Gown 20 Minutes Ago. I Love It. It's My Favorite Color.

When You're Performing, You're Creating A Moment.

The Music Business Is Motivated By Money. Music Is Motivated By Energy And Feelings.

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