I feel like I'm a trendsetter. I try to always stay on the edge of everything I do, whether it be music, fashion, film. I just like to stay abreast of what's going on. What's going on in the street and what's going on in the hood I put in my music and I feel like a lot of people follow that.
We did so much music together, before he got locked up, it's just, Gucci, he don't hold on to music. He like, Man, let's put this out, let's put that out, let's put this out. That's what he do. He like to put out a lot of music.
I feel like you should be confident in whatever you do, and a lot of my new music [that's coming out] I want people to judge more so than the music I've put out recently, because I feel like it's really changed a lot.
I'm just going to do music and when I feel like I've gotten enough music to put an album together then that's when I'm going to do it.
Getting ready to wrestle is like getting ready for a car crash. Getting ready to work with Brock Lesnar is like knowing you're going to get hit by a bus and the bus is going to back over you. If I'm going to work 'WrestleMania,' 16 weeks out I have to start training like I'm Mayweather getting ready for a fight.
It’s not a playoff game, it’s like the Super Bowl. … This is going to be a blood bath out there. I know they’re going to be ready to play. This is going to be a physical game. I’m sure that I’m going to be ready and I know my boys are going to be ready to back it up.
I don't think that three minutes of music on a commercial record is going to bring paradise, but I feel like there is power in music and power in our words and power in what we put out into the world.
If someone is sad, they put on a song, or if someone wants to rock out, and they want to get into a good mood, they put on music. Just being able to be a part of something like that I feel like was my ultimate push to do music.
I'm ready. I feel like I can't be beat. You have to feel like that being a fighter. I just feel like this is a bigger type of energy. I feel like I've beaten so many odds. I feel kind of invincible. It's going to be a good fight.
My senior year I felt I put a lot more time into the offseason to make a lot more happen. Going out my senior year, I felt like I did everything I wanted to do and more. I felt like I dominated and I feel comfortable going to the next level and that I'm ready.
Before moving to L.A., I was working with a lot of people who were manipulating me, where they either wanted to put things out immediately or didn't - I was on everybody else's time frame. But once I was on my own, I was like, 'You know what? I'm going to do this right and take my time, and I'll put things out only when I'm ready.'
I think from an artist standpoint, you have to put out music that you feel like represents you and things you feel like your crowd wants to hear. And if that drives them to go and download the album or the single, that's what we want.
It's really hard for me to sometimes put myself out there, like 'Hey, how do you feel about making music together?' because maybe I'm afraid of rejection or I don't want to put anybody out. It's the Southerner in me, like, 'I don't mean to bother you but do you mind making a song?'
It makes you feel really comfortable when someone is like, I'm not going to touch what you're doing. Do what you do and I'll put it out, but as opposed to sticking it out in Dublin and in one shop in London, it's going to go all over the world and you'll have the backing of a PR team and whatever else you need. It was like, cool, that sounds like the right move.
With 'Silver Linings,' I didn't feel - I was thinking of certain things, but I just said, 'Let me go with it.' You have to know what you're doing, where you're going with the scenes, and I put a lot of work into that. But when you're out there, at the same time you gotta be ready for anything.
I never wanted to do music to get girls, right, to get popular, or anything like that. I really love music and I want to make it better the best I can. I can tell when something's real, or when something's put together. I can just feel it. So I'm my own worst critic and harshest critic and I just want to put honest music out there.