There's no reason for somebody who's good at writing rap to be good at freestyling. They're different parts of your brain. You can develop both skills. I'm a much better writer.

I'm fascinated with the regionality of rap music.

As a kid, I was very shy.

I went to Hebrew school but opted out of a bar mitzvah.

I think rappers spend a lot of time trying to figure out what is new. 'How can I say this in a way that no one has ever said it before?'

Often, the people I'm working with on music are separate from the rest of my life.

Recording vocals has the same kind of physical demands as you experience a lot in theater work.

Writing is writing. It is all about telling stories, and I've been doing that for so long, in all realms, that it all feels like the same thing to me anyway.

I'm from the Bay Area, so I know a lot about granola.

It wasn't until I got out in the world and started worked professionally when I realized that the people I admired were the ones who had taken the little snippets of what they learned that worked for them - and strung them together in their own technique.

I sort of have this feeling about change in general. We can make baby steps on a macro level. We can try to shift policy, voting and changing who's in office. But we can make huge, sweeping changes on a personal level and in your immediate circle, or just the people around you.

College was the first time I felt I really had to choose who my friends were.

TV is really about keeping things fresh and making sure you have the most energy possible for these very short spurts of time.

There's a lot of spaces that care about what kids are buying. There are a lot of spaces that care about what kids are watching. But there aren't a lot of spaces that care about what kids are saying.

Being on stage, I know my function. I just do the thing.

I love that 'Black-ish' is a pretty traditional sitcom, structurally. It functions like the sitcoms from the '80s and '90s that I grew up with.

Some people get a Broadway show, and that's their end game, and they want to sit there for as long as possible. And some people have other things they want to do with their life.

The way we make history exciting to learn about is by breaking down the barriers that are already set up between these people.

There's this thing about authenticity when you rap, right? Whether or not it's real, it has to feel real.

That's what hip-hop is - it's about meeting the music where you are, and then you add on top of that. It's about coming at it with your full self.

I miss doing a straight play.

I call myself a nerd all the time.

Hip-hop was indifferent to Broadway. We didn't need Broadway, but I think Broadway needed hip-hop.

I get to say 'no' to a lot of things. That, for an artist, is crazy.

I didn't know a single musical soundtrack, really, growing up. Nobody listened to musicals. That wasn't a thing I did.

All the way on the West Coast, never having seen a Broadway show, it was like, 'They don't want me. There's nothing there for me.' I'd come to New York a lot and never even tried to see a Broadway show. There was no reason for me to do that.

I've always been very supported. I've never really been sad. I've just been broke. They are very different things.

I've always gravitated toward technical music in general. I love jazz fusion.

Using something that is really painful, generally, as the percussive element for a beat, I think is cool.

I'm an artist, so days don't start on any regular time.

The tricky thing about fast raps is not really the delivery of them; it's the writing of them, with consonants close enough together that you don't trip up over them.

Being with a bunch of people who never take a day off means that you're not taking a day off.

The fact that rap has a strict meter and stays to a click means that you have to make your thoughts concise.

I majored in theater. I did plays. But musicals were not my thing.

To be rapping in a musical on Broadway is just - that sentence doesn't make any sense in my brain.

I have this thing. I can rap really fast. I can rap really, really fast. It's a thing I'm good at and I've trained myself to do; it's a thing I do in the Bay Area.

I didn't aspire to be on Broadway.

I think it's important that your work is in conversation with artists in your community.

I'm aware that not everybody gets that feeling of ease walking through the world that I have.

I make the energy to go out. You can't let the Broadway schedule run you.

There's no reason for somebody who's good at writing rap to be good at freestyling. They're different parts of your brain. You can develop both skills. I'm a much better writer.

I'm fascinated with the regionality of rap music.

As a kid, I was very shy.

I went to Hebrew school but opted out of a bar mitzvah.

I think rappers spend a lot of time trying to figure out what is new. 'How can I say this in a way that no one has ever said it before?'

Often, the people I'm working with on music are separate from the rest of my life.

Recording vocals has the same kind of physical demands as you experience a lot in theater work.

Writing is writing. It is all about telling stories, and I've been doing that for so long, in all realms, that it all feels like the same thing to me anyway.

I'm from the Bay Area, so I know a lot about granola.

It wasn't until I got out in the world and started worked professionally when I realized that the people I admired were the ones who had taken the little snippets of what they learned that worked for them - and strung them together in their own technique.