Goldlink

“Sober Thoughts' is a song about an unhealthy relationship I was in with a girl, where we would continue to mistreat each other, to spite each other. We were bad for each other, yet we always came back together, because we thought we 'loved each other.' It was a young love, not a forever love.”

“I just like a beat that grabs me. And then I'll come up with a concept after. I like to take my time with music.”

“I just wanna make more music, legit music as opposed to keeping the same constant thing. I wanna show growth in the music, pretty much.”

“I just love home. I just attached to it since I grew up there my entire life.”

“I really don't want to be a stereotype.”

“I grew up with bubble-gum rap. Seriously, in 2003, 2004, it was Chingy 'Right Thurr.'”

“I don't talk a lot.”

“In black culture, you know, we used to go swing dancing. We used to go out to go dance and actually have fun.”

“I was taught that poems don't end, they just kind of stop. There's never an ending to a poem; it's a continuation for later. When I write, I write for me, and I write in poetic form.”

“At What Cost' means so many things: go-gos were shut down for our good, but at what cost?”

“I'm very complex and complicated. I like a lot, a lot.”

“There's nothing wrong with being a hippie.”

“I knew that it's typical for a black kid to say, 'I'm just going to rap.' I was like, 'I'm going to rap, but I'm going to study, I'm going to figure out what this is and how to put it together.'”

“When you're a teenager, you think you're invincible. You don't listen to anyone.”

“Real love is unconditional.”

“With 'At What Cost,' I was basically reliving a time in my life during the go-go era. I remember when it was popping for my generation and how that felt and what it looked like.”

“I'm real sexy and I make sexy music so I'm going to be Prince meets Nelson Mandela.”

“Looking back, I made my mistakes and I understand and learned from them.”