“I got a dog and am trying to elevate. I’m working out, eating healthier, reading books. Making ‘Make it Out Alive’ is going to be a reflection of all of that.”

In order for people to take what you say seriously, they have to know who you are as a person.

Before anything, I wanted to be a rapper. I used to make beats and I would start singing to layer my beats and that’s kind of how I realized I could sing.

I feel like any way you can get the message to resonate, I’m all for it.

I still got bars, I just use ’em differently. I’d say I’m a better singer than I am a rapper at this point because I’ve been sharpening my sword.

Music is my one opportunity to let out how I’m feeling when I’m not talking to a chick or my mom, you know what I mean? It’s just venting.

There’s the hype stuff that people love for five minutes and then there’s the stuff that changes cultures and shifts how you look at music. And then there’s that rare point where that hype stuff changes the game.

You work on something for so long that you become numb to it. Like, you don’t even know how to listen to it because you listened to it so many times.

You gotta question the purpose you serve for those who invite themselves into your life. Learn who you are and always question the motive. No one knows you the way you do.

I don’t wake up thinking about the genre of R&B as a whole. I just make music.

Don’t stop until you get where you’re trying to go.

We’re products of this world we were born into. We all battle our own demons. Everyone is troubled in the dark, but, please just stop & think about the babies. They’re gonna be here long after we leave.

When you’re initially making music, you’re kind of just shooting at the air.

I got a toy keyboard when I was around like five or six.

With the Sonder music, I pull a lot from what’s around me.

I mean, I wasn’t the best student in school. It would be different if I were to pursue music while I was already in school and doing things for my parents to be proud of and music was a side thing. Being that I dropped everything to do music, they was not with it.

I want to own my masters. That’s the main thing–owning all my music.

No philosophers so thoroughly comprehend us as dogs and horses.

I’m working on the world, revised, improved edition, featuring fun for fools blues for brooders, combs for bald pates, tricks for old dogs.

Don’t let the same dog bite you twice.

You’ll hunt me. You’ll condemn me. Set the dogs on me. Because that’s what needs to happen. Because sometimes truth isn’t good enough. Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.

Take personal responsibility. A lot of people go, ‘Well, I’ll get a dog because I have a kid and a kid needs a dog.’ And it doesn’t work out for that dog and the dog is on the street.

Its not about the dog in the fight, its about the fight in the dog!

If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.

Being a parent is tough. If you just want a wonderful little creature to love, you can get a puppy