THE COUTURE LIFE MAGAZINE

 “My first live venue? My mind was blown in a positive way but I was also extremely matured in the moment. It was early in my career, I think it was February 23rd. It was at the biggest church in my hometown Savannah, Georgia by the doings of my mother, she said son if we’re doing a concert and you’re doing it, I'm putting it on. My mom was my momager, so everyone was really laughing at our family and scolding us because she had purchased a billboard on the main highway and my face was up there, everyone was like who is this dude? It’s crazy because I didn’t even know what they were talking about either, and I feel like it made most of the city resent me for a moment. By the time we started (the show) it wasn’t even 2% of that church that was full, it was my church mother, you know Mother Jackson was gonna be there and my Mom, and a couple people but it was empty. 

My mom had got extra seats and unlocked the chambers of the balcony, that's just the type of faith my mom has and where I come from and so I didn’t know what was gonna happen, it got to the point I got to looking out and it was almost 20 minutes til the showtime and all the haters and scolders were present and they were sitting in the shadows laughing and I felt like you know… God get me, but I didn’t know where it was gonna come from and it got to a point where my Mother saw I was getting discouraged so she had called me and all the band, backup vocals and prayer warriors to the back and we went in like we do, it took like a solid 8-10 minutes and before we could say amen we heard the hiss of buses, I didn’t know what it was and I thought it was the cat bus (the city bus) and security came and was like overwhelmed. 

I was trying to find out what was going on and four buses from New York had arrived. All of this to say; New York showed up, Virginia showed up, youth departments had planned coming based on the advertising and marketing and had brought hundreds of children. So 90% of my first show that was full, was not 9% of my hometown and that was God showing me, brother it’s not going to be where you live, so that was the maturing moment because I really thought the city was gonna show up for me so now I go where I'm demanded.” 

 “After performances I get like the aftershock, by the time I get a chance to minister or sing or even have a moment where I have people’s ear or attention, I want it to be the right thing that God wants me to do, I want it to be rightly aligned with what it is that I'm trying to convey and it’s ultimately edifying and lifting everybody up right so a lot of time that requires blind faith me to just be myself in the moment without worry of a consequence or denial or any type of repercussion and then at the end you recognize it was the right thing. I just have the faith through it so afterwards I get nervous, because when I was on stage it was completely vulnerable I was giving my all, I didn’t care about what it is, now that it’s after the fact, everybody that got a chance to witness, that is now speaking to me from that point and it’s like when the game is on, I'm doing whatever I have to do to get the bucket but at this point you’re talking to me, so I get nervous with the mixture of the dynamic vibration of my gift and the low vibration of my personality.” 

 “You don’t need a band… you know it’s like a comfort, a blanket and a crutch for a lot of gospel, a handicap, for soul artists. I may be James Brown era but that era is gone, so i learned that because I got an opportunity after Stevie Wonder came to a show I did in LA and he invited me to The Trumpet Awards to honor Jamie Foxx. I was blown away, this is a crazy opportunity, alright I’m going to get the band, we’re gonna go crazy let’s get rehearsals bussin, and their like no, it’s one flight, two (tickets), (for) you, and your mother. So I was in the back feeling like they were trying to sabotage me, I was leaning on that, I was in the greenroom ranting to my mother like …“this is crazy, I been with the band, don’t they see all the people on my album cover? I’ve never not done it without the band, now they're gonna bring me out here to do my own show, with people that aren’t familiar with my music ma this is bananas…” She’s just like, son calm down, and in walks in this smooth bald brother that ended up being Kemistry, Kem the singer and his wife. They were sharing a greenroom with me and he heard everything i was saying because he was changing behind this like veil, so he came in and pretty much told me to shut up, and i really appreciate him, the OG moment, for that just like man shut up Stevie Wonder invited YOU, he wants YOU, he’s out there, Jamie Foxx is waiting for YOU, don’t you see that all the arrows are pointing to YOU! You’re trying to point it to this person and you wanted this person, and all these people who continue to disappoint you, or you hope they rise up in the moment, but you rise up in the moment and since that moment, it’s been me.” 

 “My Uncle, My Mom and my other Uncle Tommy and my Aunt used to sing.. “Where do you stand who’s on the lord’s side” (referring to “Who’s On The Lord’s Side” by: Rev. Timothy Wright) 

but it used to get real hype when it got to.. “I’m onnnnn the Lorrrrds” cuz it held it long enough for the kids to just be like “ONNNNNN” so it was just really cool to get that vibration, “the lord’s side” and my Uncle Keith [Mali plays keyboard in air and hums along the melody] that’s why I wanted to play keyboard because of him so like my first idols and people I wanted to be like was my family so even like my vibe now is so my Uncle Keith, it’s crazy.”

  “The end result, I’m kind of like spiritually dyslexic, my mom’s naturally dyslexic so I think I inherited it in the spirit. I see things from the back, first going forward, easily, but a lot of the times the way I figure things out may confuse somebody who wants to figure the equation from the front, back. So that's one of the things that I feel affects it, so when I see a song, I see like a target and then it’s where you base the arrow trajectory you know just shoot the shot, and be like, oh 90 yards, oh I need to arc it, and that depends on the type of song that I make. The exposure of where I'm at, because man its painful you think you're jamming but then you’re exposed to an atmosphere where your content is not relevant, whewww! and just standing in the light and have thirty minutes on a stage where you don’t have relevant content, is a real thing. So then, you make content that's relevant and it feels like you’re forsaken the content you were doing, because they aren’t aware or exposed to where you are, and it continues to change so you gotta continue to evolve, if you choose, if not you settle in a sentiment, and you die with those fans.” 

 “I wanna make a song with Labyrinth, I would love to do a song with Robert Glasper, and vibe with Travis Scott, I love that he’s.. I saw him at his concert and he’s big in Christ, big time with Kanye, based on Kanye’s influence, so I just see and I’m grateful for what he’s doing with and going through, and I just vibe with him.”  

 “Personally, the best part about creating music for me, is I always wanted to sing out of the radio. When I was a young boy before I could understand the mechanics, I knew my mom could sing, I knew my uncle and them could sing, but it was different when they played a Luther record. It just felt different, so I would say, “Mom I want to sing out the radio” and she’s like what are you talking about, and I was trying to articulate young that I wanna record records that you play, so that’s one of the things that inspires me. I’m always just fulfilling a small little goal of a young boy who always wanted a well produced song to would play out of the radio, where his family and friends would say, thats whats up it, was clean, it was quality and beautiful.” 

 “Create your own, and create it for people that you know, a lot of times we get caught up in creating music for fans that we haven't seen, and we don't pay attention to the people who we actually have their ear. So the way I got to your ear, is because I respected my mom’s, my cousin’s, and my sister’s ear, and once I got finished blowing them up for two years, that's when they don’t have a question when I'm saying “hey I wanna do some music” they say go do it. 

God is good, I would tell them, don't underestimate what you have. I met a Nigerian artist when I was traveling and he said he doesn't tend to his Facebook page, because he only has 6500 people and I thought that was terrible stewardship, like if I was his Lord I would take his 6500. For him to be Nigerian, for him to come from struggle, and for him to be blessed with 6500 people who mess with his music, and know his name, who are you to say that's small? I know where you could be, so those are the types of things that I’m grateful for, as always, a plot on to myself with my bigger portion.”