People forget that, for example, Adele wasn't always the Adele we know. Sam Smith wasn't always the Sam Smith that we know.
I did country way back when I was, like, 13-14 years old, and then I kind of fell into the pop genre.
Over the years, El Perro del Mar became this artist that, every record that came out, I just loved it.
I was kind of a sideman. Then I became kind of a singer-songwriter.
What happened with reggaeton is that many artists kept recycling the same sound. But there are a lot of reggaeton artists that are still in their prime - like Daddy Yankee - because they've chosen to continue growing, to offer people more than just reggaeton. That's where I learned to always be able to try something new and not be afraid.
I look at my career and I feel I have the potential to maybe mature into a Samuel Jackson-type older cat, and people will still respect me and say 'Yo, Ice-T was wild', into my old age. And why not? I don't necessarily think I'll be rapping in 10 years.
I love Hootie & the Blowfish and what we do, but that's not my main focus anymore.
I started out as a musician, and I ended up as a cartoon.
I think you could go back to any filmmaker or musician or artist, and look at what their input was in their formative years, and you could trace all the lines.
'The Outsider' is a culmination of a lot of things I've been working diligently toward as a recording artist. Hopefully it will render my past pigeonholing obsolete while positioning me more solidly as a socially conscious American singer/songwriter. Wouldn't that be entertaining?
Reggaeton is what opened the doors for me, and I'm always grateful for that. I'll do reggaeton for life, but I want to show that I'm an artist who can do everything.
My fans can see me grow up.
I am not less poet; I am more conscious of all that I am, am not, and might become.
It's definitely been a long, long... long, long, long, long, long journey since I was selling burnt CD's out of my backpack in downtown Oakland.
I think that as an artist, the more that you can do to diversify, and kind of challenge yourself, the more you grow.
You can't stay the same. If you're a musician and a singer, you have to change, that's the way it works.
I was an underground artist, but the underground status was successful. Coming from where I came from to see where rap is now, now artists are selling from a million to eight million copies.
'Shell Shocked' is so different from what people are used to hearing from Ty Dolla Sign.
I feel like I have way more resources, way more experience. I'm better. But my fans romanticize the earlier stuff, and I don't think it's just like a nostalgia thing of "He's not as good" - I think it's because that earlier stuff was aggressively marketed as a lifestyle to them.
By the time my first solo record came out, I was making a handsome living as a record producer. I had worked with the Band, Janis Joplin and all of these other artists in the Albert Grossman organization. So as my so-called solo career evolved, I never felt pressure that I had to come back and top when I might've done before.
With my first single, 'AM to PM,' I was just this cute 18-year-old. But 'cute' didn't get me older roles, and 'cute' wasn't selling records. I wanted people to see that I'd grown up, so I did 'Dip It Low.'
I think every artist's next work will reflect a new chapter in their autobiography. Each album tells a story about where they were at during a particular period and how they have evolved.
Back in the day it was like, I got a great record from a great producer and writer and it's a hit single, so let's sing it. But it's different when you're really living out your lyrics.
In the past, I never wrote any love songs. That was not my thing.
I like being a rapper and cursing and getting paid. But at some point I feel like I'm going to be an old angry ass man, who is going to run the school board or city council.
