Hip-hop is not about pretense. You can be missing an eye; you can have an ice-cream cone in your face; you can run around with Bantu knots; you can decide to wear gold, all everything. It's not about how you look - it's about what you say. It's about what message you're getting across.
— Brian Tyree Henry
The rap scene is so unique. Every rapper has to bring their own thing.
When people ask me, 'Are you a singer?' I say, 'No, I'm not a 'singer' - but I love the craft of singing,' going in and finding out what that means or why the hell I'm singing in the first place. My thing is really the craft of it.
My school had the dopest arts program - the dopest show choir, the dopest marching band. I couldn't sing or play an instrument a lick, but I was just going to fake it till I make it.
I was working with the likes of Steve McQueen, Matthew McConaughey, Viola Davis, just running the gamut.
My father was retired military, and my mother was an educator. She was incredibly creative. I used to love going to her school during the summer and helping her decorate her classroom. I would draw Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck. She was a sixth grade teacher. She and my father are the ones that got me into my love of music.
At Morehouse, I found myself and my voice, and I didn't want to lose that at Yale.
There's something about being onstage, man. No matter what age I am or where I'm going, theater will constantly be the thing that accepts me and embraces me.
Aja Naomi is one of my good friends.
It's really humbling and gratifying to see that people are finally realizing that we are talented and we have things to say and that our stories are just like your stories. There's no reason that anybody from Wisconsin or Turkey can't relate to 'Atlanta.'
I always say I'm not going to work: I'm going to play with my friends.
When I was three years old, one of the first albums I ever heard was Michael Jackson's 'Off the Wall.'
I discovered that acting gave me this spark, this thing. Honestly, it was a way to survive.
I went to college in Atlanta, so I know that city.
I've discovered people in my lifetime who are like, 'I always wanted to sing but... ' It's like, 'Well then, did you try?' My thing was always not caring about failure.
I say this all the time: All I know is I know nothing at all.
Acting really started for me because I was in a house full of adults. They never shielded their lives from me. They were adults going through this world doing what they had to do. I used to like to watch them and imitate them. They all have their own distinct personalities; even though they're family, we couldn't be more different people.
I was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which is where J. Cole is from. I went up to Washington, D.C., where my mother moved, to stay with her, and then moved back to North Carolina to finish junior high and high school.
My sisters were teenagers when I was born, so the last thing they wanted was a little nappy-headed boy running around. I would imitate them or copy things off TV.
Hug your mom. Hug your mom and thank your mom.
I stay in contact with my castmates from 'Atlanta' almost every day.
On top of trying to find my way in this business and losing my mother and trying to figure out what family meant to me and everything - 2016, there was a lot of anger from me and a lot of anger all around. I think the hardest part was to really realize that all these things, it's worth it.
I don't think I'm going to be back on 'This Is Us.' I think that Uncle Ricky had his moment; he did what he had to do.
My father had one of the biggest vinyl collections I've ever seen.
I'm a big guy: I look like a linebacker, you know? But no one cares, really, that I'm educated. I have a copy of 'Fire Next Time' by James Baldwin in my bag. I have an Ibsen play in there, too. I have to walk through this world with that duality all the time, that I live in two different worlds.
You see the Paper Bois - easy. Personas are easy to touch and see and digest. But you don't get the chance to really see who the Alfreds are. I want to make sure I did that with him.
Music has always been a part of my life, and it helps me a lot because it speaks for me when I can't speak for myself.
There's no redemption in being robbed. Yeah, maybe you can replace that thing, but it will never be the way it was when you got it the first time. It'll never have the same weight and preciousness again.
I learned everything I know about music from my parents and my sisters.
Atlanta has become and has always been a place where you create your own universe.
You can put Trump in the White House, but you need to prepare for a revolt because I'm going nuts.
I love the element of surprise, throwing people off of what they think they know about what I can do and who I am. I just want to keep doing that.
I'm very grateful, first of all, for my friends and my family because they keep me grounded, and they make sure I'm taking care of myself and that I'm keeping my sanity about me.
I never thought that 'Atlanta' would go off and do what it was gonna do. I never thought that I would get recognized for that show the way that I have been.
I love that you can just walk into the club and hear Young Jeezy or hear Fetty, and it's on.
