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I had a degree in economics but also thought of myself as a musician.

You start to become successful, and everybody starts to drive your money train to the bank, and they're not thinking anymore about what you want as an artist or if any of that even matters to you. It genuinely upsets people in my life that I don't care about money, and that's not my problem.

Being a musician is what I do, but it's not what I am.

I'm from a family of bankers and businessmen, and here I am, the artist, the black sheep.

As I got further into my career, as a character of color, if I was going to have the types of opportunities I felt I deserved, and continue to have them, I was going to have to start creating those opportunities for myself.

My intention when I came into this industry was to be a musician, not necessarily a recording artist, just a musician in general. And that's the reason I went to college and got my degree, which has been great for me. It's helped me a lot with my career.

I always thought that I was an important musician. If you don't have that confidence, why would you go on and do it?

Being a musician is a noble profession.

One of the reasons I didn't ever pursue a career - in the music world if you're black or mixed, you need to be able to belt a song or else you're not a singer, you know?

I make a good living and I've never looked at myself as being an artiste.