Who Is Elijah Blake?

The songwriter and Def Jam signee is stepping up as an artist in his own right.

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Complex Original

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Elijah Blake may be most famous for having written Usher’s wrenching No. 1 hit “Climax,” but the young singer-songwriter is expanding his catalog all the time. He also wrote “No Love Allowed” on Rihanna’s latest album, but more recently he’s been stepping out as an artist in his own right.

Blake appeared alongside Rick Ross on God Forgives, I Don’t cut “Presidential” and contributed vocals to recent tracks by Game and Keyshia Cole. Last week, he dropped Bijoux 22,  his first EP since signing to Def Jam under the guidance of No I.D. The eight-song suite is being hailed as some of the best work of the year, earning comparisons to The Weeknd and Frank Ocean.

Although the compliments are appreciated, Blake is very much his own artist with a unique sound and vision—neither as debauched as The Weeknd nor quite as vulnerable as Frank Ocean. But listen to his supple falsetto singing sensual, thought-provoking songs like "Vicky's Secret" and "XOX," which premiered right here on Complex, and you'll know that Blake's a major talent that cannot be denied.

Now managed by Roc Nation, Blake seems perfectly positioned as the next to blow in a major way. Read on to find out how he built his buzz and where he plans to take it from here.

As told to Rob Kenner (@boomshots)

RELATED: Interview: Elijah Blake Speaks on the Making of Usher’s “Climax”
RELATED: Mixtape: Elijah Blake Bijoux 22
RELATED: Premiere: Elijah Blake f/ Common "XOX"

Growing Up and His Poetry Hustle

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“I started out doing poetry. I was in elementary school and I wanted to make money. I was too young to actually get a real job. There was like a little club where they would have poetry contests and I started going there and winning. I’ve always had a knack for English; anything from English literature or anything like that, I was naturally good at it. 


 

My mom would go through my backpack and find poems on the back of the assignments that I didn’t turn in because I wrote [on] them and would rather get a failing grade than turn in my poems.

“I started winning poetry contests and getting money and stuff. One day, my mom went through my backpack. She saw a whole wad of money. It wasn’t that much but she knew that she didn’t give it to me. And I walked into the living room and she was in tears like, ‘Oh no, I tried to keep you away from the hood and now you’re selling drugs!’ She literally thought I was selling drugs. There was nothing I could have told her at that point in time to convince her. I was like, ‘No, I’m doing poetry contests.’ She was like, ‘At least come up with a better lie!’ 

“One day she followed me there and there was a poem actually about her and halfway through the poem, I didn’t even finish and she just jumps up and she’s crying like, ‘That’s my baby and he’s talking about me!’ And she has like a little accent so it was just the funniest thing. She was in tears. If she hadn’t followed me till this day she would have thought I was selling drugs. It was that crazy!

“It kind of got out of control. [My mom] got mad at me because my teachers were calling and saying that I wasn’t doing my homework and she’s like, ‘What are you talking about? I sat there at the table with him and told him to do his homework and watched him do it.’ They were like, ‘Well, he didn’t turn it in.’ She would go through my backpack and find poems on the back of the assignments that I didn’t turn in because I wrote [on] them and would rather get a failing grade than turn in my poems. That’s where it got rebellious. I was such a class clown.”

On How He Began Singing

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“I got into singing because my mom took me to a church and she just told the pastor, ‘Everybody says my son's smart but he just doesn’t want to pay attention in school. Can you pray for my son?’ And he was like, ‘Yes, sit him down here and I’ll talk to him.’ He just happened to be doing choir rehearsal. So he’s calling everybody to figure out what their voice types are and he’s like, ‘You come up here too!’ And I’m like, ‘But I’m not here for this.’ He’s like, ‘Come up here!’ I had to be 7 years old.


 

I kept going there and I would sing in the choir and I really just developed this love because I just loved the whole thing of me being on stage and singing.

"He gets on the piano and he’s like, ‘Hit this note.’ And I hit it and he’s like, ‘Hit this note,’ and he goes super high on the piano. He must have liked what he heard because he was like, ‘Wait a minute, I don’t believe anything is by chance!’ And he told my mom, ‘I think I figured out something for your son! I think he is very talented vocally.’ And my mom was like, ‘Really? He sounds terrible at home!’ She was never the mother to be like, ‘He’s just the best!’ She’s an island woman so she tells you how it is or isn’t.

"I kept going there and I would sing in the choir and I really just developed this love because I just loved the whole thing of me being on stage and singing. So I was like, ‘Ok, I’ll do all the solos. As long I get to sing the solos, I don’t want to be in the choir!’ Anytime they tried to put me in the choir, I would be so loud that they just had to give me the solo. That was like my goal. And it just turned into this serious love for music. I just told my mom, ‘I have to be a singer. Everything else bores me.’ So she realized that it’s not that you didn’t care about school, it’s just you were bored."


 

I just told my mom, ‘I have to be a singer. Everything else bores me.’


 

"My dad's a really great piano player, [and once I told him I wanted to sing] he was waiting for me to give up that invitation. He never wanted to force his musical traits on me. Once I said I wanted to be a singer, he turned into Joe Jackson, Mathew Knowles. It got intense. He was like, ‘If we do it right, the labels will come to you.’ Because I was like, ‘How do we get to the labels? How do we get the labels to pay attention?’ He was like, ‘If we do it right, they will come to you.’ And I’m like, ‘There’s no way a label is going to come. There’s too many people that want to be singers!’ He was like, ‘Trust me.’

"We did a little independent album and I wrote all the songs on the album and he produced every song. At that time iTunes was just starting out and back then, if people just liked your stuff—let’s say somebody would go and buy an Usher album or a top album would have come out, a Justin Timberlake album would have come out, [iTunes] would say, ‘If you like this album, you would also love...’ At that time, they would put my album there. We ended up [getting so many views] just off of the Internet and me covering my songs on YouTube. We ended up doing 60,000 units independently on iTunes.

“I was like 16 or 17. My dad was making about a little over $100,000 a year. He was able to quit his job. He did do professional gigs on the side but he was very successful at IT and computers. But we made so much money off that independent project that one day everybody in the school was like, ‘Are you rich?’ Overnight, they just started asking."

How Prayer (and Fasting) Made Dreams Come True

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"[At the time] I had a job at Blockbuster. It was like the worst thing because what you see in the TV shows is how it was. I was in Blockbuster with headphones on singing as I’m putting up movies. People would ask me how to find a movie and I would get annoyed. People would go to the manager and they would be like, 'That kid over there really has a voice!' And the manager would be like, 'He’s over there singing?! How do you know he could sing?!' They'd be going off on me like, 'You can’t keep doing that!' I ended up quitting.


 

When I quit Blockbuster, I went and said a prayer, ‘I’d like to do what I love and not be chastised for it.’ I never fasted ever so I was like, 'I’m going to fast.'


 

"When I quit, I went and said a prayer, ‘I’d like to do what I love and not be chastised for it.’ I never fasted ever so I was like, 'I’m going to fast.' I was already skinny as hell and I’m like, 'I’ll probably die! If I miss like half a meal, I would probably disappear' but I was like, 'I’m just going to do it.' I fasted for literally three days...My dad was so supportive that he did it with me. I kid you not, we fasted for three days but we were drinking like juice and Ensure because if not, I would probably be dead! The day after we fasted me and my dad raced to the refrigerator and were pulling out little ham slices. Two days after, I woke up one morning—and this is when MySpace was popping—my MySpace was filled with messages from lower level A&Rs saying, 'Please contact us ASAP! The vice president of A&R at Atlantic Records is trying to sign you!'

"When the [A&R first reached out], I’m not going to the name the exact person but they were like, 'Is he really writing these [songs]? He seems like a great artist but who wrote these songs?' My dad was like, 'He did,' and they were like, 'But who really wrote them though?' He was like, 'He did!' Long story short, they ended up flying to Florida because they had something else going on in Florida and were like, 'Ok, we will meet you guys and do this at the same time.'


 

Without them saying it, it kind of felt like [the A&Rs] were saying you can’t really prove that you wrote these songs but we believe in you as an artist so we will still pursue that.

"They were like, 'Hey, write this song!' and they played a beat and I just froze. My dad was like, 'You don’t do this to a kid! He’s never been around an A&R and this is his dream and you're just throwing him a beat and saying, 'Here.'  That went to hell. Without them saying it, it kind of felt like they were saying you can’t really prove that you wrote these songs but we believe in you as an artist so we will still pursue that. At that time, Trey [Songz] was recording his album. While Trey was recording his album, we went over there. My dad took the light bill money and paid for my trip to Atlanta, I signed to Songbook and his lights were out for a little while because he had quit his job and I had stopped doing YouTube videos.”

Industry Lessons and Support From Trey Songz

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"I was living with Trey. [The label] had bought him this little studio house so Troy Taylor, who discovered him, was there and he had a room. I had like a little basement area and Trey didn’t necessarily live there but he came to record because all the equipment was there.  That was the most pivotal point in my life because I was young and I’m watching him work and he was cutting off his braids and going through the haircut and some people didn’t like it and some people liked it. It was kind of like, 'Ok is this the album that is going to make or break him?' It was a lot of pressure for that album to be successful. At that time, I was [trying to be] who the label wanted me to be. They were like, 'Go record' and I didn’t know what Atlantic wanted to hear back to further move with the deal. The songs that I was recording, I don’t know if they ever got to them but there was a lot of focus on Trey’s stuff being finalized. But I will say everyone in Songbook wanted me to win." 


 

At that time, I was [trying to be] who the label wanted me to be. They were like, 'Go record' and I didn’t know what Atlantic wanted to hear back to further move with the deal.

"[Trey and I ended up up recording songs for his album.] So I was recording this song with Trey and he was like, ‘Man you really have a gift for song writing. Like you might not know it but you really do. You write great songs. He’s like do something like this for me.’ At that time I was 16 and I was really focused on my music but he was already still, though he hadn’t reach the pinnacle of his career, women still knew who he was and they were like all over him and I was just 16, barely gone through puberty and really focused on my music. I’m like, ‘Were at different points in our lives, I couldn’t really write a song for you. I’m not in the club every night, I can’t even get into the club so what am I going to write? So one day I came home and he was like, “Hey I got this beat and I think you would kill it. Sit here and write it now because I know if I leave it, you're not going to write it."

"We sat there and wrote it and that record ended up being 'Jupiter Love,' on the Readyalbum. We wrote it and it was only a first verse and a hook done. And months later, he already picked the tracklist and everything. I didn’t know how much that song was going to be a blessing to me. So I was like, ‘Ok I didn’t get my feature but it’s cool.’ The whole time I was there in that house, I was trying to figure myself out as an artist. Trey never, me being another artist, he never looked at me like ‘Who the hell is this kid?’


 

My goal was always that I wanted to make half a million by 21 or before I turned 21. I was able to accomplish that.

“It’s very competitive in this industry and he always gave me advice because he came from the bottom up. He was telling me, ‘I know there are some people out there that don’t want me to win.’ He was giving me the industry from the inside out, just like all the way through. I always respected him for that. He ended up keeping that record and once it came out, it became a fan favorite on the album so much to where like the royalty checks, because I wasn’t on to a publisher or anything when that song came out. With the royalty checks from that I was able to go get me a penthouse in Atlanta."

"People are always like 'You're so cool and down to Earth.' And I’m like 'I wasn’t like this in Florida.' It’s easy to be this way because I have more money than I ever had my whole life, I’m living how I want to live. My goal was always that I wanted to make half a million by 21 or before I turned 21. I was able to accomplish that. Now if you asked me how I was able to save that and manage it, that’s a whole other story!”

The Making of Usher’s “Climax”

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"I ended up getting a session with Mary J. Bilige. I went from writing songs hoping that the artists would hear them to being in the studio with them. The next thing I know I was on a plane because Mark Pitts had played a song for Usher. He was like ‘I think this kid is the future.’

"I got a phone call—it was nighttime and I was like half asleep—and it was like, ‘I need you to get on a plane and go to New York.’ And I was like, ‘For what? Does it have to be tomorrow? And they were like, ‘Yes.’ And I said ‘For who?’ And they said ‘Usher.’ And I was like, ‘You got the right number? Are you calling the right person?’ Because for me it’s like Michael Jackson then Usher, and when Michael was gone I was like, I have to meet him. I didn’t get that chance to rub shoulders with my icon. 


 

When we got to work with Usher, he was saying ‘I've gotten so much success from the pop world recently and I can’t just leave them hanging, but my real fan base is from the urban world and from what I've been able to accomplish in R&B. On this album I want to be able to please everybody.’

“I got there late, and Usher’s already there. He’s just as humble as can be like, ‘Hey, how’s it going? I'm Usher.’ And I'm like, ‘I know who the hell you are—do you know who I am? Do you even know why I'm supposed to be here?’ The whole time on the plane I was like, ‘I'm gonna embarrass myself. He's not gonna know who I am. He's gonna be like, ‘What the hell are you doing in this session?’ I was thinking Mark PItts is just trying to look out for me and he's gonna have to introduce me in the session as I go in. I sit there and Usher goes to talk on the phone and when he gets back in the room, Usher looks at me just like I thought it was gonna be. He says ‘What are you guys doing here?’ And me and my composer go “Uh...” I end up saying, like, ‘Um, well, Mark Pitts told me to show up here for the session to write with you.’ He was like, ‘You’re supposed to say, We’re here to make history, man!’ And he was like "[Laughs] That wasn’t funny man. We thought we were about to get kicked out.’ He was like, ‘Nah, we here to make history man. Once you say that from the beginning and that’s the goal, that’s what it’s gonna be.’

“When we got to work with Usher, he was saying ‘I've gotten so much success from the pop world recently and I can’t just leave them hanging, but my real fan base is from the urban world and from what I've been able to accomplish in R&B. On this album I want to be able to please everybody.’ He was so successful with [songs like ‘O.M.G.’] and the R&B people were like, 'What about us?' I had like the hardest task—how do I please both of these audiences? Honestly when he was telling me that I was like hell if I know, because that sounded difficult as hell.

"He plays me some of the stuff he's done and then Diplo is sitting there and I didn’t even know that was Diplo, because I had never seen him. I thought, maybe Usher's experimenting because I don’t even know who these guys are; I don’t feel so weird because they are new guys too. Diplo is like, ‘What’s your name?’ When I told him he was like, ‘Oh, I've heard of you.’ And I was like, ‘What’s your name?’ And he was like, ‘Diplo.’ And I was like ‘Ohhhh.’ This shit should have been on a TV show, because I was like, ‘I heard of you too, man.’

“Usher was so focused on bridging the gap that anything that was a good song he would say, ‘OK, that’s a good song but I just wanna be great.’ They would go to the wayside. We were all kinda tense cause we were like if it’s not the best shit ever then he's not even gonna listen to it.


 

I was really good at Connect Four so I was like, let’s break the vibe. I'm unbeatable at Connect Four. It’s very spooky how good I am.

“What really broke the ice honestly was Connect Four. I was really good at Connect Four so I was like, let’s break the vibe. I'm unbeatable at Connect Four. It’s very spooky how good I am. He sends the intern and the intern brings back Connect Four and Usher’s competitive so the fact that I said no one can beat me was enough to get everyone. It was a room full of guys so those were fighting words: I said no one could beat me. For days, honestly, me and Usher played round after round and Usher would not stop. I was like, We gotta get a song and he was like, ‘Nope.’ Usher kept wanting to play me and I understand that he was competitive but after a while he's gotta want to stop. But this guy was learning my strategy and he played me for like 2 days and I was killing him. I was like, ‘It’s not even fair.’ I'm talking all this trash. Then the 3rd day he kicked my ass. He mastered my technique and killed me. But that taught me something. You don’t always have to get it right the first time as long as you get it right. Me killing him and beating him that many times, it didn’t discourage him. It just made him wanna learn it more to be better than me. And so he's just like, 'Lemme show you why I've been able to stay in this game this long. It’s cause I've been able to adapt.' And that’s what he did. He adapted to my playing style and then he beat me. 


 

The concept of 'Climax' was the peak of a relationship where it comes to a stop not because someone cheated or lied but just where there's no excitement left because everything has been exhauste

“Diplo had the track for ‘Climax,’ and we were like, ‘This is a great track but what the hell do we sing to it?’ We were just like putting our ideas out and I was singing melodies and he was like, 'I like this, I don’t like this'—hands on. We ended up coming up with “Climax.” At the time I was like, I know this is a weird song, I don't know how it’s gonna end up being perceived. The next day Usher came through and blasted it and played it—it had to be like six times straight—and danced to it. Or definitely more than that. I don’t wanna sound like I'm exaggerating but it was a lot, and he was like performing to it in front of the speakers and I was like, 'Wow this could really be something.'

“The way ‘Climax’ happened honestly was that I actually have a bunch of concepts in my phone. I have like at least like 400 concepts. Usually when we write I will just throw out concepts and he’ll be like, I like this, I don’t like this—and bounce them around. The concept of that song was the peak of a relationship where it comes to a stop not because someone cheated or lied but just where there's no excitement left because everything has been exhausted and two people just call it a relationship because they're comfortable and don't necessarily know if they want to invest the time to start a new relationship, let alone look for one so you're basically torn.

“The melody and the hook are what came first and then I was like, ‘This is so high. Is he gonna drop the key? And then he went in there and sang it falsetto. Sometimes I get in trouble because any song that I write is like super high, so people always say ‘There goes another Redd song,’ because it’s like super-high. But every now and then you come across a talent like Usher who can sing those types of songs and not have to change it. I just felt that song was something special when we did it. They say you know but I really knew—because me and Usher did a lot of songs. People were like, 'You told us there was one song that was gonna be it.' And they know it when they hear it.

Working With The Perfectionist, No I.D.

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"[When I was putting my mixtape together and having A&R meetings], I randomly got a call from Chris Anokute who works at Def Jam and he was like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m just at the crib now, I have a session later.’ He’s like, ‘I’m here with No ID and he wants to meet you.’ I go by No ID’s and he's like, ‘Hey man, this is the third time that I heard a song from you and it was great, that doesn’t happen. I’m the pickiest guy ever. There is a song that you did before and the person was like I can get you to meet him and nothing happened and the second time somebody said I can get you to meet him, nothing happened. So this time when somebody said it, I said get him right now on the phone, call him in front of me then,’ which was Chris Anaqute did. 


 

No I.D. told me was like, 'Now we have to be legendary. You can’t just come in being good. You can’t just come in and perform at the same level as the competition because they have been there longer than you.

"[After performing for No ID as an artist and getting signed by him, I put together a muse board of songs.] He was like, ‘That’s not going to work, that’s not going to work.’ I think that by the end of the day there was only one song. In my head, ‘I’m like these are the songs that made you sign me.’ He was like, 'Yes, but now we have to be legendary. You can’t just come in being good. You can’t just come in and perform at the same level as the competition because they have been there longer than you. You have to come at them better.’

"No ID was like 'I want the best, I know you can be great. I get it, we all get it, he writes great songs but he has to write better for himself. You can’t give people better records than you have on your album. This has been the downfall of a lot of people’s careers.'"

Working With Rick Ross on "God Forgives, I Don't"

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"I wrote the hook on "Presidential" and got a cool feature on God Forgives, I Don'tas well. Ross was like, ‘I’m not going to tell you how many people we were trying to figure out who can write this but since you're on a roll there is another song that Pharrell wrote that I really love. We just don’t have a hook for it, but since you're on a roll just take a stab at it.’


 

What I respect about Ross is that he can bring in the extra name and have the big collabo but he is also that artist at the point that he can say, ‘Nah. You're a star and just cause it hasn’t happened yet, it’s going to happen.


 

"I took a stab at it and I sang it and he was like, ‘This is it! This is it! It’s dope as hell’ I’m like, ‘Yeah but I don’t know who can sing this!’ He’s like, ‘The way you sang this, you made it very clear that only you can sing this! Elijah Blake right? Ok, write your name exactly how you want it because this is going on the album.’ He looked out for me on that. What I respect about Ross is that he can bring in the extra name and have the big collabo but he is also that artist at the point that he can say, ‘Nah. You're a star and just cause it hasn’t happened yet, it’s going to happen. I want to be one of the first to introduce you. So keep your name on it.'"

On Bringing His A-Game When Working With "Big-Namers"

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"Once, when I was working with Mary J. Blige, she kept singing the wrong lyrics and I was just looking around like, 'Does anyone else hear that she sang this word twice?' I hit the talk button, and I’m like, 'Uh, Mary you know that one line, you're singing it wrong.' She’s like, 'Which line is it again?' I showed her and she’s like, 'All I can really do is sing what’s on the paper! You did write the lyrics on the paper right? You did write this song right? I’m in in the booth, all I can do is sing what’s on the paper. So next time how about you write what you want me to sing?' I wrote [the lyrics] wrong because I was typing. I was nervous because it’s Mary J. Blige! She sounded really good and she came out and it was all jokes. We had wine and it was fun. I’m like, 'What the fuck? I’m over here drinking wine in the studio with Mary J. Blige.'


 

I feel like I have no choice but to be great because I get to cheat. I get to see what everybody else doesn’t get to see.

"Not to sound crazy but I was just with Alicia Keys. We wrote at the piano the whole time, and it wasn’t like she put on a beat. I feel like I have no choice but to be great because I get to cheat. I get to see what everybody else doesn’t get to see. We were just there at the piano and we carved the songs from scratch, she’s sitting there spending 30 to 40 minutes trying to figure out the exact perfect chord for a certain song. Usually the chord is already there and I just write the lyrics but to be there and she’s adjusting the chord to the lyrics that I’m singing, it’s just like still astonishing because I grew up listening to these to people."

The "Bijoux 22" EP

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"That’s not even an album, that’s just something we threw together in a week, just so I could have something for people to listen to. I just wanted to do something cohesive. Just something as a form of liberation. I was in a dark mood. I just wanted to just kinda relax and escape the world. So that’s why everything is, like, really vibe-y. It’s not necessarily what the album is going to be. It’s gonna still be cohesive, cause it’s the same producers. But that’s just me, my frustrations. That’s why everybody’s like it sounds high. It sounds real euphoric. Cause I was fuckin’ about to lose my mind. 


 

The power of good music still lives and it’s still strong. It’s just a lost art. But the power is not any less. Every time it’s been done right it wins.


 

"The reaction has been great so far. It wasn’t supposed to catch on like that. It was just for people who were looking for Elijah Blake, and who he was as an artist, while we’re waiting for the single to come out, for them to find that. But then when people find it, it’s bigger than any skins or banners you can buy. Cause once people find it, it’s like—people want to put people up on new shit. That’s all I’m seeing on Twitter: “If you ain’t got this Elijah Blake EP you sleep." And I think it’s hilarious. But if it wasn’t good people wouldn’t be on it like that. 

"To me the biggest lesson i’ve learned... it just goes to show the power of good music. That EP was not something that I overthought. It was just something that I felt and I had to put it there. But there was an emotion behind the reason of me doing it. It touched people and it communicated with people.

"Honestly I just wanted to put material out there so people could stop saying, “Hey man I heard you on this song with Rick Ross—what do you sound like in your own element? Or hey man I heard you on this song with Game, what do you sound like on your own shit. Or with Keyshia. Or I know you did “Climax” but what do you sound like?

"I think that’s been the coolest thing just to see. Oh shit, the power of good music still lives and it’s still strong. It’s just a lost art. But the power is not any less. Every time it’s been done right it wins... Like if you look at somebody like Lauryn Hill who just said forget all the gimmicks and everything and formula, I’m just gonna sing about something real and where I’m at. It wins. Adele, while everybody’s doing that EDM thing, she’s like I’m not fuckin' happy. I just got out of a bad relationship. And it wins.

"I wanted people to hear where I’m at after doing my deal. Like my life changed at 22. Everything changed for me. And I can’t share that with anybody. It’s the biggest year of my life. And the album won’t come out till next year. By then I’ll be in a whole nother mindset. So let me just put this out for me, for my liberation. And when people heard it, I guess it just connected with them. Everybody faces stressful times. People felt it. People did. And it was even surprising to me."

The Future

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