I don't have any control over what actually happens except for that I have full control over my will for myself, my intention, and why I'm there. That's all that matters.
Control is not real, and I'm really understanding that every day. It's about the acceptance of relinquishing control that makes it powerful for you.
Wearing a hijab never made me feel any more conservative - it made me feel safe. Then, after 9/11, I became the butt of a joke on the playground, so I stopped wearing it. Kids can be really cruel when you're the only black girl in your Girl Scout troop.
I'm a Scorpio with a Pisces moon. I am very critical of myself. I'm actually way less critical of others than I am of myself. I'm in my own head a lot. It's hard and really discouraging.
I love food, so having a lot of food allergies now and just having a really sensitive body, it forces me to be very mindful and conscious and eat when I'm hungry, not just when I'm bored, and just really slow down. Everything in moderation.
I don't want to speak negativity into existence.
As long as you're being honest and there's intention in what you're doing, then I think that energy permeates your field and becomes like a homing signal for other people with like energies.
I want to excel at something, to follow through, to not be afraid.
I was born in St. Louis, but I'm from Maplewood, New Jersey. Maplewood is completely different than the rest of New Jersey. It's very small. It's quietly affluent but more low-key. Lauryn Hill is from my town, though.
I've always loved playing with hair. I used to want dreads like Lauryn Hill, but my mom wouldn't let me.
I feel like when you say 'activist,' you have to have so much clarity, and I don't always necessarily have so much clarity on how I want to help others, I just have this weird, deep urge to help other people. I'm trying to let God guide my body and use it as whatever kind of vehicle or vessel it needs to be.
It starts with trusting yourself, even if people are telling you you're too young to trust yourself.
When you're, like, 190 pounds, dark-skinned, and a new artist that no one really cares about, people don't really take the time to make you look beautiful.
I wasn't popular in high school; I had no friends.
I feel like every outfit I have ever planned ahead is trash.
I learned everything the hard way - like, literally, everything. I know that God does that to people that he has lessons for. I just wish that I had learned less extreme lessons.
I think music is honest and will make you do honest things.
I don't think I'm inherently feminist. I think the universe wants me to be feminist, and I think I resonate with that. I think it just chose me to be this female energy... thing. And I'm very drawn to female energy, but I don't really have any prerequisites in feminism. I just roll with it.
When your parents regulate everything you hear and everything you intake, it forces you to get creative in other ways. It sparked the writing bug and the very overactive imagination. Because I've had a lot of time by myself and a lot of time isolated from regular culture, I created my own.
My mom is a Pan-Africanist. My dad is still Orthodox Sunni Muslim, but he's super fun. He worked in television for years. He was a Black Panther.
