I actually have a song with Mary on her new album. That was one of my favorite experiences.

So who are your influences then, musically?

I am influenced by a lot of the greats, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Prince, Michael Jackson, Jay-Z, Biggie Smalls, Radiohead. If something inspires me to start I really have no choice in the matter.

Your initial hook up was with Andre Harrell I believe?

Yes I had a record deal at Interscope when I was sixteen. They have always believed in me there. I met Andre about four years ago when I didn’t actually have a deal anymore at Interscope so I was just kicking around trying to make an album on my own with no label opinions. So I started pumping my own money into it and I met Andre along the way and he paid for me to finish the album and we took it to Interscope and the rest in history. When we approached Interscope, Jimmy Iovine was like ‘Didn’t we already have him? He’s been here since he was 12!’ So it worked out really well as Jimmy Iovine has been a great influence in my career and he hooked me up with Pharrell.

You are signed to Star Trak right?

Yes I am, I was still at Interscope when I was recording this new album and Pharrell was moving Star Trak up to Interscope and then we hooked up and lucky me.

Andre Harrell and Pharrell are both influential characters in this game, but even saying that if you are talented, hopefully the talent over-rides the connects.

Andre was the first to really believe in me and went out and promoted me to the people who he thought needed to know me and explained to them that I was going to be something special. After the album didn’t reach those verbal expectations, I mean it was a critical success in my opinion.

Your first album has amazing reviews though.

Yes and it got a lot of love from the industry.

But isn’t it a case of you don’t need to sell obscene amounts of units to have a critical success nowadays?

Yeah you don’t have to sell a bunch of records to improve on your career and people tend to think that if you don’t sell millions of records the first time out then you aren’t going to make it and that isn’t how it works. I got to make amazing contacts and got to work with Mary J Blige, Usher and Lil Wayne and from those opportunities I will continue to make great music and try to get better at it. Continued on page 3 »