Good soul music should make you feel something in your heart, in your body, and in your spirit. That's what I try to do both in the studio and on stage.

I understand it for marketing purposes, but I've always hated defining myself with a genre. Nothing feels broad enough.

Africa doesn't look like it's changed that much to me since I first went in '94. There is still a major economic divide, but the rights of Africans have changed and progressed.

E-40 is another person I love working with because he is so entertaining.

When I'm singing, I can see so many people, and I can see their response and everything. And being somewhere like the Hollywood Bowl, I'm seeing those immediate people in front of me, but other than that, it's just dots, and I'm just imagining who's out there and imagining their responses.

When I first was putting out music, I was like, 'I don't want to be overly sexy or do too much with the imaging or show too much skin, and I want to make sure my lyrics are balanced.'