Music videos, to me, are like an extension of a song.

Always wash your face before you go to bed - skin care is key.

I'd like to change what people expect. I want to evoke something that's not nameable, for people to go, 'Huh?'

It's gratifying to hear something familiar and challenging at the same time.

Sounding like I have agency in a song is important to me. I want to feel empowered by the music.

I'm definitely seeking to challenge tropes.

I want to soundtrack people's layered feelings.

I don't care about the underground, even if that's where I'm currently residing sonically.

I'm coming from the zone of Faith Evans, but with weird production.

I remember the day I first heard what Timbaland and Aaliyah did - that intersection of her pretty voice and his weird, resonant production. I remember where I was and what I was doing. It was a major situation. We're trying to continue that legacy.

I know my ticket is vulnerability. Most people point to some emotional experience, some hardship, some high or low when they talk about my music... a time when they need to feel those feelings more.

In Maryland, I didn't grow up around poor white people. Where I grew up, the white people were middle class or upper-middle class. It's interesting how screwed up it is in reality, because most people who receive assistance from the government are white, but not in my head or in my experience.

Growing up in an Ethiopian household allowed me to feel like I had an audience before I had an audience.

My queer black women peers are the ones who make me not feel crazy. The way we act is so instinctive.

It means so much to be able to share myself with the world.

It is very rare that I am just coming up with melodies off the top of my head. I usually am responding to something - it could be chains dragging on the floor - but I am usually responding to something.

I would say there is a zone of R&B that hadn't been quite innovative.

Before I collaborate, it's important that I have a conversation about what I care about before we make anything, so that it's very clear.

I have something stupid, like, 12 credits, to graduate.

There are no black women geniuses that are being named in canons. I could name a bunch, but it's not part of common knowledge. It's not how the world is taught to think about black women.

I want to empower.

You can never have enough reinforcements, resources for black women to thrive in the world. The topic has been addressed a million times before, but it will never end because what we're up against keeps morphing, and we have to figure out how to beat it.

My first reaction to being pigeonholed or pushed into certain confines is to be like, 'No, I'm the opposite,' you know? Like, don't put me in a stereotypical black-girl category, because I'm not like that; I'm doing this thing over here.

When I started making songs, some of them read as mixtape-y, and some of them read as album-y.