Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00 Behind closed doors, a lot of politics, a lot of grime and greed and demonic, disgusting.
00:10 [Music]
00:21 I think that, you know, I never sat and said, "Okay, I want to sit back and kick my feet up and stay at home for four years."
00:30 You know, there's a lot of things that happened, you know, and due to certain circumstances, this is what it is.
00:36 But you know what? I don't have any regrets because, again, like, I couldn't ask for a better experience just learning and being hands-on and just being so much more knowledgeable about the process.
00:48 And me, personally, I think I've just grown a lot. You know, I've learned so, so much. I learned a lot about myself, my character.
00:55 You know, and I became a stronger person. You know, I found out more about, you know, my weaknesses and my strengths and new things.
01:03 You know, again, it's been four years since my last album. Music changes so much, you know, nowadays. It's changing, like, every few months or every few weeks, so to speak.
01:13 So I think it was really important to try and just get out there and give them something a little bit different, you know, to definitely keep your core and to keep your signature but add a little bit of spice to it.
01:26 The Declaration, I think it just fits so well because this time around, I'm handling the whole project on my own, and it's kind of like I'm declaring a sense of freedom, a sense of growing up, you know, just experimenting new things, trying new sounds and stuff.
01:39 And I think it just made perfect sense. This time around, the big thing has been working with other producers because all my other albums have kind of been working with in-house producers, you know, for everything.
01:49 So me being able to be out and flying all over the country working with people like Babyface, LT Hutton, who did the single, Jermaine Dupri, Pharrell, Brian Cox, Nephew, Rodney Jerkin, Seven.
02:05 It was just amazing, you know, Polo, Knots, and it's like everyone didn't make the album, but just being able to work with so many different people, it was just an amazing experience, and I had a lot of fun.
02:16 Robin Thicke is on the album, Nelly, Akon, so, you know, it was a good time.
02:23 It's definitely, like a lot of people see the glitz and the glamour and the positive stuff, but there's a lot. There's a lot of stuff behind closed doors, a lot of politics, a lot of crime and greed and demonic, disgusting, snake, dog-eat-dog, sharky people, you know.
02:47 And you get placed in situations that you have no control over, but you definitely have to know how to handle that, you know, and you have to deal with it, you know.
02:58 It's like you sink or you swim, you know, and you have to not take everything so, so personal and just understand it's a part of being in the business.
03:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]