My fans reflect who I am.
So many kids meet me and they get disappointed. They ask me to wear shades and behave in the way I do in my songs. Then I have to explain it to them that I am like this in real life, more composed, chilled out and cool.
For me, a good show is not a perfect show; it's just one where you connected. It's a show where the fans got to know you, and they realize that you're human, but they also think you're a star and that you're talented and all that good stuff.
I'm not a fan of anybody music who I feel like a sucka. I don't listen to you. They play you in the club, you can have the #1 jam, but if I know your character, how can I listen to your music?
I do not like people writing songs and then other people singing them. A lot of people don't even sing their own songs anymore. It's like producers these days have ghost producers; 'I don't produce, but I am a producer.'
I want to connect with my fans the way Mary J. Blige's fans connect with her.
Yeah, we might have a video on 'TRL,' but when you go to the Warped Tour you're going to see us walking around in the crowd and hanging out with kids because we treat our fans like we wanted to be treated when we were going to shows.
It's such a phenomenon for a hip-hop artist to fully embrace his Christian roots and his faith. And that becomes something that people almost need you to justify.
Artists who say that they're artists: usually people who need a job.
I love Nicki Minaj, Eminem, Katy Perry. They are all about being themselves and I love that.
It's very important to me to stay true to who I am as a musician and the songs that I love.
If you're part of a record company, you're a manufactured product. It doesn't mean that you're not talented.
It's important for country fans to know that I'm not just trying to come in and take their money for a CD.
At the end of the day, when people say, 'Oh, she's an industry plant,' I'm like, 'No, I just have representation, like every single other artist you listen to.' I'm not the first person to get a manager.
Everybody says they were 'born to sing' but you can suss the good from the bad. You can tell who's in it for the music.
Who said that artists should sell their soul, expose everything about themselves?
A lot of people think, like, 'JoJo' is fake or 'JoJo' is a character. But, like, it's not.
I feel like there's a lot of pressure on artists to be 100-percent organic all the time.
Just because I'm a recording artist doesn't mean I'm not an artist. Because I had to grow.
I'm lucky in that in my character in hip hop is me. I'm Michael Render. My character is Killer Mike. But the truth that I sing in my raps align themselves with the policy of Bernie Sanders.
The music industry wants safe rock stars, people who are totally homogenised.
It's weird to me when an artist comes in, and the label says, 'We want him to sound like Chris Brown,' but he says he wants to sound like Sean Paul. There's a huge disconnect - it's like we're making a product.
I feel like that's so important, to enjoy my own music. Because if I'm not passionate about my music, then it's going to show to the fans.
Indie music is 'it' now. It's kind of a revolution to the music: 1980s, 1990s music was getting very sanitized; they were complying with the music industry. Music was getting more and more dead in a way. Now, because of the social climate that's very severe, the artists are compelled to start being real. It's really great that indie music is now.
My day one fans - my fans from my mix tape days - know my life now. They know where I've been. You don't want to have a disconnection with those fans. You have to give them all of you because they feel like they've known you.
