Rotimi

“'Empire' was already given its green light. I was like, 'Alright, this makes perfect sense. They wouldn't be going this hard on me if I didn't have it.' So it was last minute when I learned, you know, it's a business decision. That was my fault.”

“I pride myself on having a really authentic music sound: no gimmicks, just my vocals.”

“I grew up in the church, and my mom is, like a major prayer warrior.”

“Season 1 of 'Power' was a hit. Everyone was talking about the series and how I should watch it. The show was well written, and it had a great cast.”

“I'd promised my parents that I'd go to college, take the time to grow up a bit, and experience something different before really pursuing music.”

“My story is a little unorthodox. At first, I just wanted to book a commercial. I didn't have any expectations, and I wanted to try something new.”

“In this business, you can't get too attached to something.”

“If you're good at what you do, people get really, really invested in that.”

“You're put on this platform where you see beauty every day, and you kinda get numb to it. So then it's like, 'What else do you have? You really can't hold a conversation? Next'.”

“I like the purity of telling stories now because not a lot of people are telling stories in their music. I wanna tell my specific story: what I see right now.”

“Sometimes you just vibe with people. Some people have great energy, and you click with them, and you just wanna have a good time.”

“'Power' came in August. February 2014, 'Empire' ended. That whole time, I was like, 'You know what, let me just take a break from this and focus on music' so in that time period, I did my whole EP. Got the single 'Lotto.'”

“In my field, you either want to be great or you shouldn't be doing it.”

“Being a growing entertainer, period, you're going to always have struggles. I'm still trying to learn how to even perform right onstage.”

“I got 'Power' on my own through my agent and my team. I didn't know 50 until I got on the show. Because my character is so close to his, we spent a lot of time as friends. But even in that, I didn't really bring up music to him because I saw how everybody else was bringing up music to him.”

“I don't just sing R&B: I'm able to sing pop and play with other sounds, but it's all real soulful.”

“The best music to dance to is my music! Haha! I say anything that speaks to you. I personally enjoy dancing to hip-hop, R&B music, EDM/trap music.”

“My first professional acting job was on 'Boss'. My first acting job was basically my first acting class. I had to show up on set prepared and knowing my lines. Also, I got a chance to work with a living legend, Kelsey Grammar - that gave me hands on experience.”

“The Apollo is where all the greats performed.”

“There's never been an entertainer that can take two warring parties and have both presidents stand on the stage and hold hands.”