JPEGMAFIA Quotes

I was never an R&B artist. People coined me one, but that's because, especially if you're in the States, if you're black and you sing, then you're R&B.

You don't see a lot of black rock stars. The music industry tends to be segregated stylistically. It's hard for a black artist to cross over to rock music.

People just decided I was an R&B artist because I'm black.

Society wants to categorize everything, but to me it's all African-American music.

People always say, 'There are plenty of black country artists out there! There is Charley Pride! Darius Rucker!' That's all they can name. They don't understand what we go through, and a lot of people who are fans of traditional country music, as they call it, look at us and aren't going to say, 'Y'all like country music.'

Rock'n'roll is nothing but Boogie Woogie with stuff on top of it. And if you're black, they name it rhythm'n'blues, and if you're white, they name it rock'n'roll. So, I don't give a... You know.

When 'Raw Like Sushi' came out in the U.S., I wasn't considered to be black enough. They didn't really know where to put me. The music wasn't 'black black' sounding. It wasn't R&B; it wasn't straight up hip-hop, although obviously in that dimension and world.

I don't like the word 'urban' because I think it's a bit of a generalisation and they use it to class music, but I don't think it's a word that necessarily classes music.

I mean, there's plenty of artists who are making R&B music, but because of their ethnicity, it's considered something else.

Country is not what you heard on the Grammys.

I always give the example, if you turn on the radio today, black radio, Lenny Kravitz is not black. Bob Marley wasn't black: in the beginning, only white college stations played Bob Marley.

Our songs did not transcend being R&B hits. They were R&B hits that white kids were attracted to. And if people bought it, it became rock & roll. That's marketing. Why couldn't it still be R&B? The bass pattern didn't change. The song didn't change. It was still 'Yakety Yak' and 'Searchin'.'

People are so confused about race and hip-hop that people didn't even consider the Beastie Boys one of the greatest rap groups of all time because they were white.

English music is white - it evades everything.

Presley is country music, white music. Jazz is black music - it was invented by the blacks in New Orleans. And I'm really a jazz singer. I was impressed with Elvis - he was the handsomest guy I ever met in my life, and a very nice person, too. But the music doesn't impress me.

I don't really classify 'Wichita Lineman' as country.

We are - as artists, we are racialized through genre and called black - without being called black - through genre.

People grapple with labeling me as hip-hop, R&B, or pop, and it's interesting to me. I'm just making music.

I think what people get confused about is that they want to label me as this EDM girl, but a lot of this stuff is genre-less.

Let's be honest. We don't take rap serious the way other cultures take rock-n-roll, they take country. They artists are being loved.

During all the years I entertained at the Baby Grand night club in Harlem, 90 percent of the audience was white. But when I tried to break Into television, I was told that white folks wouldn't understand what I was talking about.

I hate genres. I think they're just marketing labels.

I'm a big fan of Snoop Dogg - he was super-hot when I was in high school - but I also listen to a lot of Tim McGraw.

I do feel a little embarrassed and ashamed that I was sort of saying, "Oh, yes, I used to do country music, but I didn't inhale." Which is not true at all. I inhaled the hell out of country music.

I feel like if you turn on country radio, you will find something you'll love because it's so diverse.And that's a great thing.