“Petersburg, growing up at home, all by my family and friends, Petersburg really, city-raised me, you know everybody there.”

I love music, so if I wasn’t singing, I would probably still be working in the music industry. I love songwriting, so I’d probably be a songwriter.

As blacks, all we got is sports and entertainment. That’s the only way out the hood sometimes.

I wish I never fell so deep in love with you and now it ain’t no way we can be friends.

I don’t think music can be held. I don’t think artists can be put into boxes or places. It’s all about creating and making the best music you can.

I think everybody gets lonely sometimes. I don’t know if people can ever understand how you can be in a room full of people and be lonely sometimes.

Change is a natural form of progression.

From the music I make, to the things I do in my life, I’m true to my R&B core.

I love Calvin Klein underwear. That’s the only kind of underwear I wear.

I’ve never really been settled. I don’t think I’ve ever known what it was like to be a person that was used to sitting still. I think it’s given me the ability to detach from any situation.

It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t get a little nasty.

The first tattoo I got was when I was 17, and it’s a cross on my bicep with ‘Only God Can Judge Me’ underneath.

Style is a display of character. It’s also a great way to express yourself and the ladies like it.

I think ‘selfies’ are fun and expressive, as long as you don’t get carried away with it.

In my dressing room, you’ll definitely find some Starbursts and Skittles. I have a lot of candles that remind me of home, and a humidifier for my voice. I also have some digital Kodak albums where I have pictures of my friends and family.

A lot of people perceive women as sexy based on their outer appeal. But there’s no way to mistake if a woman is confident.

Singing wasn’t a reality for me, until other people started noticing I sounded good.

I have spent the better part of my adult life standing up and fighting for working families.

I was brought up in a very ordinary family, in fact, a worker’s family. Both my father and mother were ordinary citizens.

I don’t come from a family that had the money to put me through college, so I left school with $100,000 in student loan debt.

I always wanted a family.

The Republicans must get their act together and protect working families.

My mother has always been the social glue holding the family together.

If you release your subconscious it becomes really hard to live a social or family life.

Many families are struggling, at least there will be direct payments for every working class adult and their children, and an extension of unemployment benefits.