Being a student in an art & design school, that was the moment for me, that was when I began to develop a lot of self-confidence and really come into my own.
When I grab the microphone, I am the greatest rapper, musician, and artist that ever lived, ever, in the entire universe - but when I put that microphone down, I am a man with so much to learn, personally and professionally.
I've got no need to prove to myself that I can do Shakespeare. I've done it.
I think if I hadn't had the dance background, it would have been much harder as a kid to be like, 'I'm going to be an actress.' But you're involved with one area of the arts and other things interest you. It feels like an easier move.
I feel much more comfortable as a writer than an actor. I feel like I am a much better writer than I am an actor.
I remember the first time I ever showed my parents a song that I had written. The content may have been a little darker than they were used to, or really introspective in a way that may have been uncomfortable. I thought they'd retaliate with some kind of judgment or concern about whether I was feeling all right, but they were proud of it.
My parents were always supportive. They didn't say, 'Get a real job.' They believed in the arts, and they prepared me to be skilled. I'm lucky I can drop into these worlds - into a studio or onto a set or go on stage - and feel comfortable.
I'd be quiet as a mouse if I didn't have the correct feeling about my music. I feel like I'm able to talk about it and say I'm one of the best because I think I got the music to back that up. I got the live show to back that up. That's all that matters.
When I talk to children, I show them a typical drawing I made when I was six and point out to them that when I was their age, I didn't draw any better than any of them.
So with the young African artists. What they have to learn from tribal art is not how to copy the traditional forms, but the confidence that comes from knowing that somewhere inside them there should be the vitality which enabled their fathers to produce these extraordinary and exciting forms.
I knew I was a good singer - I've been singing my whole life, so I was comfortable enough with that - I felt like I could compensate with not being great on guitar.
The art helps, between the acting gigs. I feel that if I can sing in Mamma Mia! then goddammit, I can hang a few paintings, give people lots of cocktails, and have a good time.
So much of writing is fed by vanity and the feeling that what you are doing is the most important thing in the world and it has not been done before and only you can do it. Without these feelings, many writers would not be able to write anything at all.
I love Lauryn Hill when she first came out with her solo project because it felt like she just knew what she was doing.
I'm confident in my art.
I really believed that my songs were good enough for the whole world to listen to. I had fans from America or the U.K. who would be like, 'Oh my God, I love your music'.
I paint as if I were Rothschild.
I have a great amount of confidence and faith in my abilities to write. There are other areas of my life where I'm not as confident, and have not as much faith, but when it comes down to writing and working, I don't worry about it. I trust myself to get it right.
The good and wonderful thing about my whole career is that I've always felt that the audience, if I do it well, will track wherever I go, whether it's President or a lawyer or bad guy or good. All I have to do is execute the material enough where they buy into it. I've had the great luxury of the audiences accepting that.
I don't want to say the wrong thing, which I always do. I think I do better when I sing.
I feel like I'm the last rap superhero. I really do. I feel like everybody else, they seem to be a bit victimized, and I don't feel like that's me.
David Mamet gives me great heart. When I ask myself, 'I don't know if I can do this again,' Mamet would say, 'Oh yes, you can.'
I know who I am as an artist. I've always known who I am as an artist.
I think the great thing about theatre, and if you start in theatre, is that it does build a confidence in poetic themes and ideas.
To me, I'm on a whole different level of rapping.
