My first album, Just A Rolling Stone, to me was an experiment, and I think this next album is just going to be the solution. From an artist standpoint, I’m definitely big on writing. That’s something that I didn’t get a chance to really do much the first time around. And this time around I just want people to know that I’m a songwriter at heart – that’s something that I’ve been doing since I was little. I write with a lot of metaphors.. And then sonically, for the sound of the music, it’s just gonna stay current.
Basically, it might sound similar to pop/r&b songs that are out on the radio, but that’s just because I’m trying to get in on the radio. But then the words and lyrically where I’m going with everything is going to be 100% me, and it’s going to be 100% unique and my writing style. I think it’s just going to be a mix of pop/R&B, maybe a little bit more towards the pop side this time.Basically, the new sound is just coming from me creatively. I’m kind of just starting with a fresh piece of paper and I’m coming up with what I want to come up with. So I’m going in, it’s just a blank session in pro-tools and whatever we want to create we just create it from scratch. It just feels so much better than the first time around because it’s obviously going to be more me, if it’s things that I’m talking about, things coming straight from my heart, experiences that I’ve been through, sounds that I want to hear in the song, etc. It definitely sounds a little bit more fluid and a little more genuine.
Being on Bad Boy, I got to learn a lot and I think everything was meant to happen the way it happened. I mean, here I was, I was working in the studio with the biggest writers and producers in the world.
[pagebreak]
I was working with The-Dream and Tricky, Timbaland’s camp I was working with everybody that Puff had on board – The Hitmen, Mario Winans. A whole bunch of these great producers that I was a fan of their music growing up, now here I had a chance to work with them all. This time around, I’m taking all of that knowledge and all of that wisdom I learned and I’m putting it into my style. Some of the tracks that are finished already I co- produced or I produced the whole track. I think when people hear the music they will understand just how much more genuine it is, because it’s coming from my experiences and my soul. Even down to the little sounds – I play piano so you’re going to hear that on the album.
I’m calling out two people who I would love to work with more than anybody else – one being Ludacris, I would really love for him to get on this first single, no matter how we reach out to him, we have his manager’s contact, we’re waiting until the song is mixed and mastered to send it to him. I’m also going to be reaching out to Rihanna as a female feature on a duet I wrote.
I admire Luda because he did do it all by himself and no matter how low things got for him he kept going and kept putting out music. And he kept putting out music that he wanted to put out. And then, on top of that, his delivery, his flow, his lyrics. He’s also a crossover rapper. He could spit on an R&B track, a pop track, a house track – He’s such an adaptive type of rapper that I would love to get him on a track, because he just makes a song universal.
[pagebreak]
Rihanna too, just like Ludacris, she has such a broad sound. One day she could come out with a reggae sounding track, one day It could be just straight R&a
