ARI LENNOX

Academically I was never that great and I was not really into school. I don't know, I just really had a problem focusing but singing always came naturally.

I just feel Black women, we get slept on a lot and people don't recognize our greatness in our curls and in chocolate skin.

Grandma Holly told me at three years old that I had a voice of an angel, and I just never stopped singing.

Could I be a good mom? That's a dream, I pray that I'll be the best mom ever. But I don't know. It's so important to me.

Like, even going to Duke Ellington School of the Arts, like, they slept on me. I think they thought I was talented, but for whatever reason, they didn't want to give me a lot of solos or any type of just love like that. But I don't know. I think that's what encouraged me to grind so hard.

Yeah, I believe in all the wild, witchcraft stuff. I don't like to dabble in that, but I believe they all know something.

I never had an apartment before, so just finally having my own place. And it was magical. It was gorgeous - beautiful tub. I never could use the tub because I was afraid of the roaches.

But yeah, so many people are just not very genuine online. I caught myself looking for my ex, and a lot of these people that I would swipe right on, I'm meeting them in real life and they're just not that guy at all.

I use shea butter, olive oil, Shea Moisture - the coconut hibiscus bottle. A mix of that. If I want to do a slick bun, I'll use Eco Style Gel even though it has fragrance in it. Oooh, scary. I'll survive. I keep using it because it works.

I'm so thankful for 'Backseat' because it's doing so much. It's almost at two million listens on Spotify. It's changed my life. It was the song that Dreamville really pushed and they just really made it explode, and I'm just so thankful.

I really think only Erykah Badu can be Erykah Badu.

I can't believe people love my music. It just feels like a dream because that is all I ever wanted.

And I always was getting fired and quitting jobs, so I was not going to ruin Public Storage, and I was excited about Public Storage because I knew eventually I could be one of those property manager people that had their own apartment on site. So I had these big dreams for Public Storage.

You just want fame so bad. You want success so bad. You just believe anybody who conjures up a pretty contract and they're telling you all these sweet nothings I guess.

I always imagined having so much energy on stage, versus me being somewhat chill, soulful R&B.

Old friends call me Sea Salt, because my last name is Salter. Or Cocoa, cause my real first name is Courtney.

I'd be at these different clubs passing out my business cards and fliers. Then the club would end, the light would come on and all my business cards would be on the floor.

My life would've been so different if my parents listened to Korn. That would've been fire!

My dad would always play Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Anita Baker, so I fell in love with them. I would try to make my voice sound like theirs.

I'm always going to take an experience and a fire beat and marry it all together with adult melodies. I try to paint, just like Frank Ocean paints with his lyrics. I try in similar ways to paint my life into these songs.

Something about Mariah Carey's songs really had me wanting to sing high like her.

I knew I wanted to sing and maybe I had a chance at it, so I just started recording myself maybe five or six times a week and putting them on YouTube as much as I could with hopes that someone would recognize me.

Artists tend to get this thing called demo-itis, and I'm extremely guilty of that.

Yeah, the first contract I signed, that was the first time I realized, Oh man, never mind, I don't want to do this anymore, but it was too late. I realized it was a bad thing because I wanted to try out for 'American Idol' and all these different things couldn't do that because I was in this contract.

I remember watching 'Apollo' with my other grandma - I have so many grandmas - and seeing these young girls sing... I knew in that moment that I wanted to sing.