What was the reasoning behind the creation of the latest album?
My latest album is Catching Dreams: Live in Fort Knox Chicago, which has recently been nominated for a Grammy. It is nominated alongside LeVar Burton, Don Cheadle, Dave Chappelle, Amir Suma and Mr. President Barack Obama. For me, it was meant to document this poetic journey that I’ve been on. The first piece on the album was called “The World Needs More Poets” because for me this journey started with poetry. I had a teacher in high school, who made me perform for the first time and my first time ever on stage. I got a standing ovation and it literally changed my life and it prepared me too.
So, I went on this journey and I found myself being led by poetry, creativity, and it just sent me on this amazing journey. Throughout Catching Dreams…, I want to poetically, creatively document this journey that I’ve been on. And I really feel like we were able to do that and capture some really amazing stories from our song, “I Can’t Go.” I always tell people fear kills dreams. If you don’t get the fear out the way it’s done So it’s about not giving up.
Is collaboration important?
I’ve always loved collaborating. We all have our gifts and our skill sets, but when you collaborate, to me, it takes your skill somewhere you wouldn’t imagine. So, I may have one idea, but you can bind that with other ideas and then you have this beautiful medley of creativity. It’s always been important to work with others and see what we can come up with. I could create all day by myself, but what’s a party with one person?
It’s always fun when you’ve got a gang of people enjoying themselves and having the time coming together to create something that will hopefully touch people, inspire people, and put a smile on somebody’s face when they really need it.
