BJ the Chicago Kid

I left the city to accomplish something. And by leaving the city and trying to accomplish something, I've been a terrible cousin, brother, son some days.

There's something about real music, dawg. It comes to you; you don't have to go to it.

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

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.

A connection should be natural. Just be yourself, and you will find someone who likes you for exactly what you are.

Every hip-hop artist I have worked with has a respect for higher power, whether that's church, Allah, or any sort of higher being - they all have a humbleness.

The people I'm inspired by and I listen to are all ballsy, and I feel like I'm closer to an artist when they're open and honest.

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

Whatever your purpose is that leads you to the point of no return, that's where you go.

I think love is important, but it's not popular.

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.

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

I grew up in church and on the block; the best of both worlds.

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 ain't rocking with Trump, but politics I kinda keep to myself.

I love loyalty, and I love paying back my end of loyalty, you know what I'm saying? I love making it full circle.

Style is a big part of my life. I used to work in retail before I was an artist; a lot of people didn't know that. I was so good at selling clothes and shoes, and just the lifestyle, that I could tell what size someone was wearing just by looking at them.

What's love without a soundtrack, you know?

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

Chicago taught me when to talk, taught me when to shut up, taught me when to stay, taught me when to go. And really it all forms to make BJ the Chicago Kid.