I'm still a very frugal person. But everything that does get spent is a reinvestment into my own music.
The only frustrating thing about jail is that I can't make music.
Music is a whole oasis in my head. The creation process is so personal and fulfilling.
I have a really full life, both within music and outside it.
I did some acting in college. But then everything stopped when I was a junior, in the fall of 2001, when I started becoming religious. Once I became a full-on Hasidic, I stopped everything. I stopped music. I stopped acting.
People don't have fun making music all the time.
In Philly, there are a lot of social programs. If you have a degree, you can go and apply. I was basically a social worker, but I became sort of a sub teacher in a special program, helping kids with reading or math. But we would also do plays, learn about music... We were doing lots of fun stuff, but that was such hard work.
I've been all over the world. I love New York, I love Paris, San Francisco, so many places. But there's no place like New Orleans. It's got the best food. It's got the best music. It's got the best people. It's got the most fun stuff to do.
I've worked with so many different artists, and I'm always willing to expand and do some new fun things as long as the music is fun and the fans appreciate it worldwide.
That's my fun time so, to me, doing my homework, studying on what I do, watching the movies, listening to music, all that inspires me so I focus a lot on that and practice.
I don't know how to function without music. When I'm not making it, I'm listening to it. It gives me courage and takes care of my mind.
At 3 A.M., I'm still up watching videos of jazz heroes I never saw live. It's so thrilling. And not just the music. The Internet is changing the future of fund-raising. I'm thrilled by the potential.
An hour of violin lessons in Berlin is an hour where you get the child interested in music. An hour in a violin lesson in Palestine is an hour away from violence, is an hour away from fundamentalism.
In Arab culture, music is for celebration. You don't play music at funerals.
I grew up listening to a lot of emo music, a lot of rock music, a lot of rap music, a lot of trap music, funk, everything.
But the idea of taking things and mixing them together is what I do in my music. I take hip-hop, R&B, pop, dance, funk and soul and mix it all together to get my own sound.
I fell in love with funk music through my father - Funkadelic - as well as soul and classical early on.
I still go on YouTube and watch the old performances and the 'Soul Train' lines. I'm still amazed by how much soul and funk the music and dancers had.
I feel so honored that I'm bringing part of the culture of my country to other countries, you know, like the funk music.
I had a band called Infectious Grooves back in the Nineties. That music was really a mixture of styles, and we had some stuff that was punk rock, ska, but then we had a lot of funk in there.
