When 'Red Tails' came along, all I knew was that they were the first African-American fighter pilots in the U.S. Air Force. I had no idea how deep the story went or about all their amazing achievements. There were a few Tuskegee Airmen on the set to make sure everything was as authentic as possible.

Prince is the ultimate performer. Prince is that dude that's going to get on stage by himself, if he need to, but hold you in the palm of his hand. Like, you can't take your eyes off the man when he's on stage, and he could just be sitting there playing his guitar.

Michael Jackson believed in making music that made people feel good.

I think people are getting into these 'Empire' songs because of the emotional investment they have in the characters. You kind of feel like you know the songs already because you just watched them play out in front of you with these characters.

Me and Drake gonna be neighbors if Donald Trump becomes president.

Of course, there are some things you keep personal and private because you're a human being. But on the other side of it, I ain't got time to be hiding nothing and all that. It is what it is.

Movies take a long time because movies take a long damn time to put work into. Whereas music, you don't have as much time. I didn't realize that.

I've never viewed myself as above anybody else or anything like that. I'm a regular guy at the end of the day. I like Cinnamon Toast Crunch and The Powerpuff Girls.

The name of the album is 'Non-Fiction'. And, I'm calling it that because the name of every song on this album is derived from a true story. Now, some of the stories are mine. Some of the stories belong to some of my fans.

My style is mainly about comfort. It has to be comfortable, it has to lay right on me, know what I mean?

We are in a good place. Her name is Crystal Renay. She has much promise. Yes, much promise. Quality.

I'm trying to bring something new to the Tin Man. He may be the one without the heart, but he's the most heartfelt guy there. It's a more manly heartfelt, a 'don't feel sorry for me' - type of heartfelt. I don't want to say tougher, because that just sounds stupid. But the Tin Man is a man's man.

There are different kinds of R&B happening today. There's the traditional, more soulful R&B that doesn't get the recognition that it deserves. Then there's the more hip-hop oriented stuff. You got your boy Ty Dolla $ign, people like that, who are bringing more hip-hop elements to R&B, which is cool.

I grew up in Las Vegas. My mom worked in pretty much every casino on the Strip.

Hats have been my thing pretty much my whole life but finance has not. I would go to the corner store and buy really cheap baseball style caps and wear those to school.

I'm not a natural. I had to teach myself - or be taught - everything I do. I just spent hours and hours in the mirror mimicking Michael Jackson.

All my musical influences came from my mom, who did everything to music. She played it 24 hours a day, seven days a week in our house. So that's where my love for music came from.

In my mind, I was still Chimere's father. I was there when he was born. I saw him when he first came out. I held him. He was my kid.

Getting involved with the Boys and Girls Club helped keep me and my sister from getting in trouble.

I'm heavy into 'Max Payne 3'. That's a good one. I like any of the fighting games and all of the 'Tekken' and 'Street Fighter' series.

That has been everybody's challenge, above the dancing, the singing, the lines: getting into who these characters would be in 2015. Today's Tin Man is heartfelt, but he wouldn't be soft. Today's Dorothy would be sassy.

My mom was the picture of the blue-collar mom: Two and three and four jobs to make sure that me and my sister never needed, that was her thing.

I don't want to call myself a perfectionist, because perfection is imperfection.

Auto-tune is good to keep your notes intact, but it doesn't do much for the feel of your voice.

Honestly, when I first heard that there were rumors out there about me being gay, I thought, 'Wow, someone must really hate me.' There's nothing wrong with being gay, but I just couldn't understand why someone would make up lies like that.

I never really created a difference between Shaffer Smith, my actual name, and Ne-Yo. They are kind of one in the same. It's been a bit of a gift and a curse. As far as Shaffer Smith is concerned, I've never viewed myself as a celebrity.

I've never been the guy to go for the celebrity girl. I've always liked regular girls, regular people, because I've always viewed myself as a regular person who just happens to be gifted in music.

The Auto-Tune makes everybody sound the same and takes away all of the emotion because you're singing through this machine, and of course your taking all of this emotion out of your voice for the most part.

My 'Slide Some Oil' ain't gon' be Nipsey Russell's 'Slide Some Oil.' Elijah Kelley's 'You Can't Win' ain't gon' be Michael Jackson's 'You Can't Win.'

With Jay-Z, it's hard not to be amazing.

I've spoken before on how the art of storytelling has been lost a bit. I definitely feel 'Empire' is helping to reprogram us back to that place where we pay attention and invest emotionally in the records and the artists.

'Madden' is the closest thing to actually being on the field yourself. It's so ridiculously realistic. Before I play it, I honestly didn't understand. 'What's all the hype? It's a video game'. Then I sat down and played it, and you feel like you're on the field.

My mom has always been a caregiver, and she's perfect in this role leading my foundation.

Beyonce's the kind of artist where you're not gonna see it till it's right.

I pride myself on being the type of artist who can work half in the R&B world and half in the pop world.

I'm good but not great at 'Madden'. I have friends that their whole life is based around this video game.

I'm gonna be honest: I was never really a fan of techno music, dance music.

Me as an artist, I'm more notorious for writing songs that celebrate women, songs that are all about the positive element of the immensely confusing creature that is woman.

We're falling into a place where melody is somewhat lacking in music. Everybody feels like, okay, too much melody or too much harmony, and it kind of goes over people's heads; they don't understand it.

Sammy was the only one that looked like me, so I naturally gravitated to him. Sammy made it cool to be black at a time when, let's just say it, it wasn't very cool to be black. His name was on the front of the building in lights, and he had to go in the back. But you never saw him sweat.

I'm a rather multifaceted person - or at least I like to fashion myself as such - so my dreams are multifaceted. For example, I had a dream of winning a Grammy, right? I've done that three times over.

Now that I have kids, I want my kids to appreciate my music, but at the same time, I don't want to teach them anything that they shouldn't know just yet.

I've never done this from a standpoint of, 'I want to be famous.' I sing because I love singing. I perform because I love performing.

You know what? At this point in my career, at this point in my life... I'm 34 years old; I don't have time to be hiding.

I wrote a song that basically turned into a public service announcement for the fellas out there, like, 'Should you run into this type of woman, run for your life!' So the name of the song is 'Run,' featuring the rapper ScHoolboy Q. It's one of the standouts on the album, in my personal opinion.

Ms. Clinton - Mrs. Clinton, I should say - she's a favorite of mine.

The story of 'Libra Scale,' the storyline was created first, and then the music was created around the story line.

Temptation is just that - she's the girl you claim you don't want, but in the moment, you have more drinks than you should in the club. One thing leads to another, and suddenly you've done something really stupid. You've jeopardized what could've potentially been a really great relationship, all due to temptation.

As an artist, you know as a person in the public eye, period, you kind of have a responsibility to the younger kids that are watching and emulating what you do.

There's a whole advantage being an executive as an artist.