Rotimi Quotes

I can do R&B, pop, gospel... whatever genre of music that's out.

I have a lot of friends who are involved in everything from Americana to blues to R&B to pop to country.

I always believed a singer should be able to sing any kind of song. If I wanted to sing a Cole Porter song, I should be able to do that. Or 'Sherry,' I should be able to do that. Or a Dylan song.

I want to do more urban R&B with a little bit of pop, but not much. I want to have that soulful kind of side of me come out.

There's been a time where I was like, I wanna be a folk singer; no, I wanna sing soul. I want to sing classical music. I want to sing R&B. I want to be on Broadway. I just wanna sing. Whatever comes out of my mouth, that's what I want to do.

Who's to say a blues man can't play rock and roll?

I think I have a different view of what pop is and what can be acceptable in that realm. I feel good about that. I want fans to see that not everything's so black and white with genres.

We always thought it strange that nobody was up on that stage playing soul stuff. Maybe people were playing it in their garages, like us, but they always reverted to pure rock when they got on stage.

In the early '70s, I started to feel like Philadelphia soul was the black-sheep brother of rock and roll. I decided to try to get away from it.

I am comfortable with anything I sing: jazz, gospel, classical. It doesn't matter. I can do it all.

I don't like rock. Honestly, I like to listen to it, but it's not for me. There's a lot of musical genres that I find interesting, but they don't suit me. It's one thing to listen to different genres, but to perform a genre that isn't yours is counterproductive.

I can't sing anything other than country!

I was a pop freak. I love music. Of course, I knew soul because I grew up in it. Writing it and everything. I love soul. But I love a tune that has some meat in it. Something I could hang my hat on. Because music is universal. Therefore, I felt no boundaries.

I love... different kinds of music. I like classical music and pop music. I like alternative, and I like rap, hip-hop, and I kind of collected all these things that I love, and they infused my sensibilities, and I just wanted to sing because it felt like it needed to come out of me.

Fundamentally I feel that there is as much difference between the stage and the films as between a piano and a violin. Normally you can't become a virtuoso in both.

Americans can pretty much sing anything, whereas foreign singers are often limited in style, language, even composer.

Growing up, just singing in bands, I didn't have the same kind of voice as everyone else.

I was put on so many different musical stages growing up that I didn't think about what kind of music we played. I just thought music was music.

I grew up with music in the house. I was told I could sing as soon as I started talking. Everybody in my family sang, always lots of records, blues and jazz and soul, R&B, you know, like Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Coltrane, that kind of thing.

I want to show everybody the diverse me and show people that I can do a tune on an R&B song, I can do a tune on a house song, I can do something on an Afrobeat. I really want to show that.

When all my friends were into punk, I'd be singing versions of soul ballads. I thought, 'Oh my God, I don't want them to know I'm doing this.' But I really enjoyed singing those songs.

I never called myself a jazz singer. I just call myself a vocalist because I love to sing all kinds of things.

It's incredible how much beauty exists in the world of music and how many artists you can really inspire with your own work.

You know, I am very versatile in music.

I really like jazz and soul, but I also love so many other types of music, and I didn't want to be afraid to blend and experiment.