The music is first and foremost everything - no egos, no attitude, nothing - it's about the music.

I listen to all types of music so I'm influenced by everything.

[It influenced the music] in our own little way, just with the Ragtime feel. It's Hip-Hop. It's OutKast. It is what we've been doing for years. Some songs have a little more piano or whatever, but the whole project was a natural progression from a double CD. It was like, where do we go from here?,

I called Jermaine [Dupri, artist/producer and head of black music at Virgin], and it was on.

I'm about making music and spending time with my family. I've been in the spotlight so long that I'm looking for something different.

The music that I make is built on layers upon layers of musical ideas. I want to keep it fun and fresh to where listeners won't get everything from just one listen. They can go back to it months, weeks, or even years later and hear something that they didn't ever hear before. That's what it's all about.