Quotes from BJ the Chicago Kid

My dad helped me understand songwriting because of him playing Babyface a lot. I don't even know if my dad realized that him just being him, him just living his life, loving what he loved, poured more into me than anybody ever would know.

On my block, we grew up like family. Summer times, man, psshh, we in the back in the alley or in the front on the block. Somebody has some music playing, and nine times out of ten, it's soul music. We got whatever we drinking that day, we got some food, we probably even grilling. It's just a good time.

You cannot have black music without something soulful in it, whether it's lyrically, how it's performed, or how it's expressed.

I feel like Black Milk has found his way of putting his life into his music. I feel like, lyrically, he is a beast; a lot of people sleep on Black Milk. Black Milk is a monster. He from church. He from the street. He get down how I get down. He's a soulful cat, and I love how he get down.

I just love how everyone with that Motown sound seemed to come from a two-block radius from the actual original location. The original location was a house, and then when they outgrew it, they bought the house next door and the house next door and the house next door until they had seven houses on the same lot.

What's love without a soundtrack, you know?

Singing is something I do every day - not every other month. When I touch the mic, the same thing happens every time.

Most people have to learn the words to the National Anthem before they sing it. I learned these words when I was a child in elementary school, so this is something that's been embedded in me ever since I was an adult.

I just believe in giving people their roses while they're living. That's my new thing - period.

As a man, if you're married, your happiness is with her happiness. If she's unhappy, everything's messed up. It's a woman's world for sure.

Success for me is being comfortable, and not in terms of a certain level of financial status, but that comfort comes from within.

The world hasn't noticed, but R&B has shifted. It's changing course.

I can't be Stevie Wonder; I can't be Marvin Gaye, but I can be the foundation that I think withholds that mold.

I realize how much my life lines up with artists like Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke. My sound comes from church, but the stories come from actual personal experience, being out there in the streets living life.

Falling in love in our generation just isn't as popular as it used to be.

My whole childhood was church. But as an adult, I've grown to understand my relationship with God versus how I sing. People in church are like, 'You sing the devil's music,' but I believe in balance. I can't just party with you. I got to help you, too.

When you are making an album, it is about the purpose - you are creating both a concept and vibe, then you follow through with that.