Anderson .Paak

It's not enough diversity.

I'm too big for this town.

Especially when I started doing music, I wanted to escape to all these different places that I've seen on television or on movies or on records that I would hear.

And...

Looking back on it, I was just dead set.

As soon as I graduate, I'm going to LA.

I'm going to make it.

I'm going to get signed.

I'm going to be doing all these different things.

And it didn't happen exactly like that.

And I'm actually glad it did because it built a lot of character.

And I'm glad that I grew up in a small town now because I think it gave me a different kind of perspective.

And I don't even know if I would have survived coming up in LA when I look back at it now.

It was different.

But yeah.

Yeah, I battled with like identity stuff, you know, thinking I wasn't black enough with the kids that I grew up with in church.

And then I go to suburbs and I'm the only black kid.

And I thought I had to be the black spokesman for the whole school.

Right.

I think my mom saw that too.