Quotes from Brent Faiyaz

I want to own my masters. That's the main thing--owning all my music.

Me and Goldlink have known of each other for a minute and our managers know each other so they set up a studio session. When we got in the studio, we was cool; we're from the same area so we have a lot in common.

I mean, I wasn't the best student in school. It would be different if I were to pursue music while I was already in school and doing things for my parents to be proud of and music was a side thing. Being that I dropped everything to do music, they was not with it.

People will listen to a song and expect that you just have that persona on all the time. But really, that was your one outlet that one day to get that emotion out. The only difference was you put it on a canvas that's going to be there forever.

I don't wake up thinking about the genre of R&B as a whole. I just make music.

I'll listen to certain things that I made back then, and I'm like, 'I wish I could have done this, I would've done that'. When you start out making music, you just want to make something that people will like.

You gotta question the purpose you serve for those who invite themselves into your life. Learn who you are and always question the motive. No one knows you the way you do.

I still got bars, I just use 'em differently. I'd say I'm a better singer than I am a rapper at this point because I've been sharpening my sword.

In order for people to take what you say seriously, they have to know who you are as a person.

As cliche as it sounds, don't stop. I feel like so often people will have talent or have potential, and they'll quit because they don't get anywhere as soon as they want to.

I feel you gotta be nervous. If you're nervous, it's just 'cause you want to do well, it's not 'cause you're scared.

Don't stop until you get where you're trying to go.

I've always felt like I was observing everything, like I'm just looking out of the window, peeping how everybody is living and just penning about it, so I made the album about that concept.

In 2018, nothing is sacred. Everyone is everywhere and knows everybody. I don't text too personal because somebody might screenshot it and share it.

I probably talk to myself more than I talk to anyone.

If you're my woman, you're somebody I give emotions to that I don't give to nobody else. You're my safe space. I don't want my safe space to be compromised.

I used to think that there was a certain way I had to stick to when it came to R&B, but now I'm saying whatever, the same way these rappers do. I'm bringing that into R&B music.

If you tell somebody that you make music they're all interested. But when you say you rap, they just start rolling their eyes at you. It would've taken me a lot longer to get my foot in the door if I'd continued rapping all the way.

If I feel like making something, if I feel like saying something on the track, that's what I am going to do - regardless of reaction.

I was reading Neil Postman's 'Amusing Ourselves to Death'. It's one of my favourites.

I recorded everywhere. I would go to different cities and do a session there for the project. I did sessions in New York and I did sessions in L.A. It was just kind of wherever I was and I felt like cutting a track.

If it feels good coming out, then I really don't care about anything else, for real. It's all about just having fun with it. If it feels like less work, then the project is coming out better.

I got a dog and am trying to elevate. I'm working out, eating healthier, reading books. Making 'Make it Out Alive' is going to be a reflection of all of that.

Rapping was kind of hard. It's so many words. When you sing you can kind of stretch the words out. I didn't have to write as much as everybody else.