Tell me if this is wrong. Justin Bieber... is 100 percent like watching Vanilla Ice all over again. It's exactly the same. Well, as soon as Bieber has a hit, he'll be like Vanilla Ice.
People tell me I'm like the country version of Justin Timberlake. Actually, the other day someone told me I was an unathletic version of Justin Timberlake, and I was like, 'I'll take that.'
It's been really cool to me to watch someone like Sam Hunt, whose lyrics and roots are in country but you can hear that he listens to Drake and Justin Timberlake - and that's OK. It allows songwriters to be more honest because it's like, 'This is who I'm listening to.'
The dream of any scholar has, for me, come true by virtue of this award. The Nobel Prizes are justly famous in the hard sciences, in literature, and for peace.
When I was 21, I wanted to write like Kafka. But, unfortunately for me, I wrote like a script editor for 'The Simpsons' who'd briefly joined a religious cult and then discovered Foucault. Such is life.
A friend of mine that I was in a band with started me on Kafka, which in turn led to Camus and Sartre.
I have become their idol. Like, Busta Rhymes has called me twice to come to rap with him, and Big Daddy Kane and Eric B and Rakim, I made a trip to do things with them.
Nothing me and Kanye can do musically was gonna match the event of what we were trying to do. So we were trying to deliver an album and experience at one time; that was the idea for 'Watch The Throne'.
I loved everything, but it was Kanye West who really changed everything for me.
I had an advantage because people would post me on blogs because I had co-signs from Kanye West, Def Jam, and G.O.O.D. Music. Everything I put out, the blogs would put up. When I realized that, I used that to my advantage and helped build my following on my own.
I really don't do karaoke because it becomes a vocal performance rather than fun, like, 'Let's just sing this song and be silly.' It's not fun for me.
Whenever I have friends over, we end up eating and talking and losing track of time, and, once in a while, singing karaoke. It reminds me of the family meals we had in Russia, which always lasted a very long time. That's a tradition I miss.
Somebody rang me up the other day and said 'Yellow' was on a karaoke machine. That made me genuinely excited. It's got a nice beat.
My sister's a big karaoke person, and she's never been able to get me to do it.
I'm awful at karaoke, but if I did have to sing, I'd go for my favourite Frank Sinatra song 'I've Got You Under My Skin.' The fact I love Frank is my grandfather's doing: he drummed it into me from a very early age that Frank Sinatra is God.
People never believe it when they find out I'm a karate world champion. They don't see me as the type because I'm small and blonde.
I think I got nominated in the MTV Brand New Top 10 because I'm 3x world time karate champion, and I'd probably just beat everyone up if they didn't put me in it. They were all scared!
I'm so proud of my time in karate and what I achieved. It's part of me, so I don't want to leave it behind.
I am so grateful to Marc Jacobs, Riccardo Tisci, Karl Lagerfeld, and Katie Grand, who took a chance on me that first season and gave me an opportunity.
I have this original style that I want to show to the world. I don't want to be kind of this beat down, bruise-you-up kind of dude and have Karl Anderson cut all my promos for me. I don't want to have to do that.
