I'm a huge fan of R. Kelly's. He's a musical genius and probably the most prolific artist of the generation before mine.
My production and songwriting and the environment around those vocals are not inspired by R&B at all.
My inspiration is R. Kelly, Michael Jackson, and Prince - for the vocals, anyway.
I wanted to drop three albums in a year because no one had done it. It was bold, unheard of.
My mother, my grandmother, my uncles would play Ethiopian artists like Aster Aweke and Mulatu Astatke all the time in the house.
From when I was born to when I was 21, I never left Toronto. That's why I'm such a city cat.