Rap is not music, it's talking.

It's kind of limiting using your intellect to write songs like Brown Sugar, isn't it? The only thing I'm really interested in is comparative religion and ancient history.

The truth is there was a golden era in music from 1962 to 1978 - after that it all went a bit tits up. I blame the fucking drum machine and the fucking shoulder pads of the 1980s.

Music is the love of my life. It's a total escape from reality. Music transports you to another place, someplace unexpected and meaningful.

You can do whatever you like with my image, my music, remix it, re-release it, whatever... just never make me boring.

Samba rhythm is a great one to sing on, but it's also got some other suggestions in it, an undercurrent of being primitive - because it is a primitive African, South American, Afro-whatever-you-call-that rhythm. So to white people, it has a very sinister thing about it.