Singer, actor and author Tyrese Gibson is gracing the April 2012 issue of Defy Magazine. Inside, he reflects on his childhood and looking forward to going to school just so that he could eat as well as his personal challenges, brand of success and his thoughts on the current state of music.
On being hungry
I was one of them kids … I was the brokest—the brokest there is. The hungriest. Never had new clothes, ever. Every day I went to school just so I could eat, and I was hoping that I didn’t lose my lunch ticket. Hungry, that was me. The difference in me, and a lot of people around me—I actually had a problem with that. I had a problem with being hungry.
On making people uncomfortable:You have to be comfortable enough in your own skin that you wake up and you say, “Okay, today I’m no longer going to live in someone else’s comfort zone. [People] care too much about what makes other people uncomfortable. It’s fear, it’s insecurity, it’s living your life within someone else’s comfort zone. I don’t care if what I’m doing makes you uncomfortable because it’s going to get done.
On challenges:I don’t believe in walls, levels, challenges, politics, bullsh-t. Those things just don’t exist in my mind. Everyone that will try to get in the way of where I’m going will be removed. Yes, at some point I’m going to have to deal with the challenges and the issues, but I don’t think about them when I’m getting where I need to go.
On his brand of success:I say this as humble as I can: I’ve seen a lot of people, a lot of singers, actors, public entertainers. They come and they go. But my mentality is the turtle wins the race. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. But these artists, they come out and they’ve got the—Oh my God!—they’ve got the hype and the smoke and the paparazzi and the hoopla, and all this sh-t, and it’s like a big public spectacle and, ahh, the arenas.. and then they disappear. They go away and they don’t come back. So I look at myself and I say, I’m not the biggest star in the world. I’m not. But I’m doing me. I believe in showing up and being the best version of me that I can be.
On the current state of music
What’s lacking in music these days is the conviction. I don’t believe you. Why are you singing about sex when you don’t even know what good sex is? You’ve never had good sex. You have to be able to sing about it and come from that real place. People think you can take some sexual lyrics and get up on the mic and have a good voice and that’s it, but there’s going to be a disconnect … I think people are convinced that I know about love, and I know about relationships and the challenges, and I sing about the things that are real to me. People connect to it because it’s real and that’s why it works.
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