My goal every time I make a record is just to make the funkiest, the best music I could possibly make, both lyrically, and music-wise.
I gotta make a living. I make no bones about that. Most actors do. But within that context, I've never not tried to make something as fresh and alive as I possibly could make it.
When she (my mother) passed away, I kind of understood the commitment that she made to make sure that I could stay in skating. And I wanted to live up to whatever I could. Not so much win everything, but just to be the best that I could possibly be, to honor her memory and everything she went through to make sure that I was given the opportunities to be the best that I can be. Not to be a world champion or an Olympic gold medalist, but to be the best that I could be. And that was the most important thing that ever happened in my career.
To have someone to relate to and hopefully enjoy the music and get a positive message out of it, to make the best music that we possibly could, those were the goals.
If you can make the best music ever but it requires bringing in a few different perspectives, I'd rather make the best music ever.
I wanted to get out in the world, have a great job, make my mark, and see how far I could go. And I wanted to make good on the philosophy my mother drilled into us with all the subtlety of a Lady Gaga performance. I got it loud and clear. I would need to succeed, and then I could possibly be happy.
My best bet is to make the most awesome-sounding music that I can possibly make and pour everything that I have into that and hope and pray that it stands on its own.
I'm just trying to make the best music I can possibly make and represent the new class or whatever. Myself and Cudi and Asher and B.o.B. That's all I can do at this point.
Music has become really important now. It's helped me to open up more and take a chance on loving people. Music is a good reason to care. It's just a vehicle though. It's a way to try and give somebody something that you feel. If trying the best I can isn't good enough, I'll just have to try harder next time...it's all I can do. If I do the best I can, then at least I did the best I could in this life The way I like to look at it is....if that's the last time /I ever got to play, I'd better give it everything I've got.
I rarely like the music I make. It's like nothing's good enough. I just stay in my head, waiting on the next best beat, so I can do something better than what I did.
We tried our best for so long to make the heaviest record we could make.
God knows I tried to make it earlier in life, but with all due respect to myself, nothing I ever did was any good.
I would say that I'm happy getting to make a living playing music and seeing people enjoy music that I make. So far, things have grown consistently and quicker than I thought they would, so that could possibly continue. Even if it ended tomorrow, I'd be really grateful that I got to do it.
I like to make music from a personal standpoint, and the music that feels good to me, and when the music becomes big, it's even better because it's an even more organic feeling than when you, like, tried to make the hit record.
You've got to try to guard, make an effort to defend to the best of your ability. You have to rebound the ball, which was an area that was so critical. And they wanted you to play smart and have fun. I've kind of tried to let our people understand those are the most important things that I could possibly tell them.
I actually went out and tried to hire the very best Cabinet officers that I could, understanding they can make help make the hard calls for the budget position that we're in.