I watched some serious '80s television. 'Alice,' 'Good Times,' 'The Jeffersons,' 'Family Ties,' 'Cheers'... every night it was eat dinner, watch 'Cheers.' I was actually on 'Jeopardy' with Rebecca Lobo and Dot Richardson, and we were laughing because I was just nailing every random '80s trivia question - sitcom, theme music, movie, you name it.
The score is not a bible, and I am never afraid to dare. The music is behind those dots.
Ever since me and the brothers no longer make music together, I stepped aside, and I've been doubling down here in the tech world.
I didn't want to do music. I was very doubtful. I was like, 'Oh my God. No one wants to hear a teen mom rapper.'
I was heavily influenced by big voices when I was younger. People like Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, and Patti Labelle really spoke to me. When I got older, I was into Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, and Lauryn Hill, but it wasn't until I started working with a voice coach that I really dove into jazz music.
Jazz music, as is also the case with the old down-home spirituals, gospel and jubilee songs, jumps, shouts and moans, is essentially an American vernacular or idiomatic modification of musical conventions imported from Europe, beginning back during the time of the early settlers of the original colonies.
Half the time I feel like I'm appealing to the downer freaks out there. We start to play one downer record after another until I begin to get down myself. Give me something from 1960 or something; let me get up again. The music of today is for downer freaks, and I'm an upper.
Music isn't selling like it used to, but the one thing you can't steal or download is a live show experience or a T-shirt.
You have an entire generation of kids who grew up with the idea that music is something that you can download for free.
With pop music, the format dictates the form to a big degree. Just think of the pop single. It has endured as a form even in the download age because bands conform to a strict format, and work, often very productively, within the parameters.
At the end of the day, people have the right to have opinions. I have the right to have an opinion. And I have the right to say what I want on my music 'cause it's my music. If you don't like it, don't click on it, don't download it.
I'm happy if my music is being downloaded, whether it's legally or illegally.
Obviously, I want it to be legally downloaded, and I myself have spent a fortune on iTunes because, for me, that's the easiest way to get music.
I'm against people downloading music.
We live in a connected world now. Some find that frightening. If people are downloading our music, they're listening to it. The internet is like radio for us.
The desire to share is not a vague, windy sentiment, not when you see the massive rise in live concerts in response to the phenomenon of downloading music... People want to get rid of the headphones and be part of a shared experience.
An intelligent person feels guilty for downloading music without paying the musician, but they use this free-open-culture ideology to cover it.
Good jazz has been a big part of my life as far as my interest in music, and... It's kind of weird now with music, the way technology is, with downloading and iPods and electronic distribution, and its kind of - you miss something, I think.
I use iTunes for downloading music, but I always decline when prompted to update this or that new version.
I feel like a Mac store! I have a Canadian iPhone, an American iPhone and an iPad. I'm constantly downloading music to iTunes.
