People will appreciate who you are when you're naturally being who you are.
Ari Lennox
I never had an apartment before, so just finally having my own place. And it was magical. It was gorgeous - beautiful tub. I never could use the tub because I was afraid of the roaches.
When it comes to creativity, or my artistry, when it comes to how I wear my hair and what I'm dressing like, some things I'm going to fight for; and it's really about picking the battles, but usually I'm not backing down.
You know, sometimes people recognize me, sometimes they don't.
I use shea butter, olive oil, Shea Moisture - the coconut hibiscus bottle. A mix of that. If I want to do a slick bun, I'll use Eco Style Gel even though it has fragrance in it. Oooh, scary. I'll survive. I keep using it because it works.
Old friends call me Sea Salt, because my last name is Salter. Or Cocoa, cause my real first name is Courtney.
I know it may come off cheesy, but if somebody's going to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars, even more into you, you want to make sure you can return that; you want to make sure they feel good about their investment.
I'm hoping to bring some raunchy, risky, soulful frankness to the stage, really.
I've been trying to be a singer ever since I was 2 years old and I'm a whole 27 years old now so it's like, things can happen or they can't. It's a humbling experience every year, every day.
I can't believe people love my music. It just feels like a dream because that is all I ever wanted.
It's just really hard to commit to clean eating, and then sometimes you don't want to eat cold salads. Sometimes you want that warm comfort food.
I'm so thankful for 'Backseat' because it's doing so much. It's almost at two million listens on Spotify. It's changed my life. It was the song that Dreamville really pushed and they just really made it explode, and I'm just so thankful.
I came across this guy named DJ Grumble and I just really liked his beats because they were different. I felt like they spoke to me.
My dad would always play Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Anita Baker, so I fell in love with them. I would try to make my voice sound like theirs.
I don't know why God has been blessing me to make it look like I'm fit. I haven't worked out in months.
Academically I was never that great and I was not really into school. I don't know, I just really had a problem focusing but singing always came naturally.
I'm going to fight for what I want.
I knew I wanted to sing and maybe I had a chance at it, so I just started recording myself maybe five or six times a week and putting them on YouTube as much as I could with hopes that someone would recognize me.
I don't have good discipline at all.
I always imagined having so much energy on stage, versus me being somewhat chill, soulful R&B.
I just feel Black women, we get slept on a lot and people don't recognize our greatness in our curls and in chocolate skin.
I'd be at these different clubs passing out my business cards and fliers. Then the club would end, the light would come on and all my business cards would be on the floor.
I remember watching `Apollo' with my other grandma - I have so many grandmas - and seeing these young girls sing... I knew in that moment that I wanted to sing.
Something about Mariah Carey's songs really had me wanting to sing high like her.
Yeah, I believe in all the wild, witchcraft stuff. I don't like to dabble in that, but I believe they all know something.
Yeah, the first contract I signed, that was the first time I realized, Oh man, never mind, I don't want to do this anymore, but it was too late. I realized it was a bad thing because I wanted to try out for 'American Idol' and all these different things couldn't do that because I was in this contract.
I started gravitating towards Soundcloud. So, that was my hustle and then I met my manager Justin in 2012 and we were just grinding it out in New York.
At the end of the day, I was getting really close to quitting. I was starting to accept that maybe I'm just going to be a SoundCloud singer, and that's when Dreamville came and saved me.
Could I be a good mom? That's a dream, I pray that I'll be the best mom ever. But I don't know. It's so important to me.
My favorite style inspirations are between Rihanna and Diana Ross.
My best writing is not outside of the beat. I'm 99 percent influenced by the beat first, and then the words just flow.
I'm always going to take an experience and a fire beat and marry it all together with adult melodies. I try to paint, just like Frank Ocean paints with his lyrics. I try in similar ways to paint my life into these songs.
But yeah, so many people are just not very genuine online. I caught myself looking for my ex, and a lot of these people that I would swipe right on, I'm meeting them in real life and they're just not that guy at all.
I really think only Erykah Badu can be Erykah Badu.
Grandma Holly told me at three years old that I had a voice of an angel, and I just never stopped singing.
But yeah, YouTube started for me straight out of high school, so 2009, because everyone was going to college except me.
The world likes trap and EDM unless it's a fire melody.
I always wanted to solo at the church and they didn't ever give it to me. But eventually they did and I froze. But then I killed it.
Howard University - HoChi - they make the best Philly cheesesteak I've ever had - way better than Philly.
My life would've been so different if my parents listened to Korn. That would've been fire!
Artists tend to get this thing called demo-itis, and I'm extremely guilty of that.
There are a lot of incredible producers out there. But that doesn't mean when you get in the studio that the vibe is right and that it's a fun experience, and you can trust people, and just have a good time.
I just was always singing. I didn't know if it was good or not, but my grandma, she told me that I sounded like an angel.
Like, even going to Duke Ellington School of the Arts, like, they slept on me. I think they thought I was talented, but for whatever reason, they didn't want to give me a lot of solos or any type of just love like that. But I don't know. I think that's what encouraged me to grind so hard.
I was scared of planes and then also just got this job. It was $10 an hour. To me, that was way more important than meeting J. Cole.
And I always was getting fired and quitting jobs, so I was not going to ruin Public Storage, and I was excited about Public Storage because I knew eventually I could be one of those property manager people that had their own apartment on site. So I had these big dreams for Public Storage.
You just want fame so bad. You want success so bad. You just believe anybody who conjures up a pretty contract and they're telling you all these sweet nothings I guess.
New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in the entire world.
