You know, I really feel a responsibility to the music, and I teach workshops in music sometimes. And folks do come to me and they go, 'How do I make this blues song my own? How do I feel like I'm not an impostor doing this?' And I'm like, 'That's an excellent question.' That's where you should start, where you go, 'How does this speak to me?'

At some point you have to take responsibility for who you are and where you are and being able to listen to other points of view, whichever side of the tracks you're on.

Each song has its own way that it likes to be done, but it can be more than one way. If you tap into it, you can feel it.

Every song has a heart, and I just go for that.

I like Queen Latifah.

I'm still black in the eyes of America.

We have to talk about the negativity, but we have to enjoy the beauty of what this country, culturally, has done.

It's not about me, it's about the music. I don't do this because I want to be a star. I don't do this because I want to make a lot of money.

What's really interesting to me is to have a connection to what was going on in the past, but to make it a living thing.