Positivity, confidence, and persistence are key in life, so never give up on yourself.
Khalid
I'm really excited about what the future holds and to grow as an individual and as an artist.
I always try to be nice. I never want to be that person that anyone perceives as being rude or disrespectful, 'cause that's not me at all.
I would classify myself as an individual. That's what I try to stay true with - being myself, 100 percent.
Once you're comfortable with the way that you're dressing, you express yourself a lot more, and you're just able to have a lot more fun.
I was told I wasn't good enough, but I just chose not to listen.
I feel like baggy pants are cool.
For me, love is endless, and love has no age limit.
My mom is my biggest inspiration by far. She inspires me on a daily basis. I remember hearing her sing around the house, and I was like, 'Mom, you belong on TV. You're a superstar.'
I suffer from anxiety, moments of depression. I'm in my head so much, and I'm thinking so much, I'm playing a tug-of-war within my mind.
I was in the sixth grade and living in Germany, when I was hanging out late with some friends. I turned around, and there's a dude dressed up as Michael Myers following us all the way home. It was the scariest thing ever, and it always reminds me of Halloween. In my mind, I was so young, so I really thought it was Mike Myers following me home.
Love crosses all boundaries.
I feel like we go through different stages of love. When you get a little bit older, love starts to feel different, but you see that love has always been there.
A lot of my songs are about loneliness and losing relationships. Even the ones that are happy, there's a lonely undertone to them.
El Paso is where I started. I don't feel like I'd be making the music I'm making now if I hadn't gone there.
My mom raised a self-aware kid. I wasn't like the typical alpha male. I wasn't afraid to sing, you know? I wasn't afraid to be in musicals.
I use my clothing choices as a way to express how I feel.
I've been singing since I could talk correctly.
We forget that when you grow up, there are a lot of people who are in the same position as you. The reason we forget is because there's not really a true voice that talks from the perspective of youth.
We were told not to turn our hobby into our job, but to turn our job into our hobby. As kids, we were told not to pursue our dreams!
Falling in love in high school and falling out of love - it's very digital. I've had breakups where they've called me to tell me we were done, and I've gotten a lot of text messages from an old girlfriend letting me know how she felt about me after we had ended everything.
I can't play an instrument to save my life. But when I'm creating, and when I'm making music, I feel like I'm the head of the orchestra, and I'm just waving my wand, and something is created.
I want people to know that it's OK to have feelings; it's OK to be vulnerable. That no matter where they live around the world, teenagers all go through the same things.
It's my job to accept my youth, to spread my story, to let people know who I am as an individual, because there's so many people who are blinded and think less of me because of my skin color.
Kendrick Lamar deserves a Grammy. He's one of the biggest, most influential rappers of my generation.
I gotta spread all this love that I have for myself, I gotta spread it to everybody else, because my positivity is going to change at least one person's day a day, and that's all that matters to me.
I worked hard on making a body of work that takes people on a journey. It was never about making a certain type of song. It was simply about embracing real-life situations.
Even though I wasn't born or raised in El Paso, it'll always be a part of me until the day that I die.
A lot of people think teenagers haven't gone through anything in their lives - they're not even 20 years old yet. But a twenty-something can go through the same type of experience or heartbreak that a 50-year-old can go through, so why does age matter?
I was very confused with where my life was heading, but I knew that whatever I did, music was going to be involved.
I got joked on. You had people saying I was stupid, that I was lame, that I was feminine, this and that. I was like, 'OK, but I'm still gonna be successful, and you're not.'
Combing your hair after a long time is terrible.
The first songs I made brought me to the Grammys. I was a five-times nominated teenager off voice memos and songs that were clearly recorded off different mics.
It wasn't like I was specifically wanting to write songs about technology. It's just what I lived, what I was experiencing growing up.
Uzi is insanely good and super creative.
When I started writing, I said, 'I don't know how to do this. I don't know if it sounds good.' Coming from being an underdog or being told that something wasn't for you over and over repeatedly, it took a lot out of me. It took a lot of my self-confidence.
To be recognized and accepted by my musical peers is truly an honor.
There's been a time where I was like, I wanna be a folk singer; no, I wanna sing soul. I want to sing classical music. I want to sing R&B. I want to be on Broadway. I just wanna sing. Whatever comes out of my mouth, that's what I want to do.
I definitely associate songs with the places that I've been.
As an artist, I never want to be a moment. I want to be a legacy, and I want my music to touch people for years to come.
I knew if I worked hard enough that I'd be successful and eventually give opportunities to others.
I had originally planned to do musical theatre and be on Broadway, but then my love for poetry also set in. Once that happened, I became torn between a career as an English teacher or a music teacher.
I always try to keep my friends within my music. I always play them all of the songs, and they are my biggest critics, and they love it, so that's a good sign.
I'd love to collaborate with Frank Ocean. He's one of my favorite artists of all time.
Being vulnerable was difficult for me at first because I've said things in my songs about how I felt that I never told anybody.
When I wanted to be a music teacher, I wanted to help people through voice. Now, I get to help people out through song.
I'm a regular guy, and I don't want anyone to look at me as being superior or having a God complex or anything like that, you know? I don't want to walk around like I know everything, because I have so much more room to improve.
I try to take all of my experiences in and not take anything for granted.
With 'Location' and all the other songs around it, my music turned into therapy for others. And that's something I really love and am blown away by.
I moved from New York to El Paso in 2015, just before my senior year. I was super nervous. My mom, she's in the Army, and she got stationed at Fort Bliss. We packed everything up and drove all the way to El Paso.
