The video hasn't even been shot yet, so I have handled things completely backwards of what I normally do, when it comes to the marketing campaign because I didn't want to make a big deal. I really underplayed the record. I told the label, "Don't press out 185,000 copies, just 25,000. Press no more than 30,000. Don't even do too much, just let it grow organically." If it's really going to be a bona fide hit, organically it will evolve into what it needs to be. I'm not going to force-feed this record and set myself up for a great commercial failure by trying to launch it like Out the Box, when some of the consumers' confidence has been damaged by the media or even the choices that I've made that they may not agree with.
So for some of them, they need to see and hear why they loved me to begin with. "Blend," to me, was the best side-door entryway to say, "I'm attending this party. You don't have to announce my name. I'm just here chillin'. If you want to have a conversation, you can come over and we can chat it up, but it's just really the overall plan is in God's hands." There's a lot of music out there. I don't want to compete with anybody. I'm in my own lane. If you dig it, you dig it. So far, the reception has been great.
Since you don't want to compete with other artists, do you find yourself competing with yourself? What does success mean to you?
Actually, I'm very competitive with myself but there are so many directions I can go within a record. For me, it wasn't about making my best album. It was about making sure I had the best collection. In the future, my main goal is to make sure I drop records in a successive way, like boom, boom, boom, consistent, no-nonsense, this-is-what-it-is, great and keep it moving. More than competing with having a better record, I just want to put forth the most consistent string of albums that any artist has ever put out back-to-back.
Kind of like the same run that Stevie Wonder had with Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale to Songs in the Key of Life – I mean, back-to-back-to-back-to-back consistently great albums. Something is to be said about records that you're a part of that are that consistently good. That's what I want. I don't want those five-year gaps when you come out with some big announcement. That's not the industry anymore anyway. People's attention won't last that long. I just want to make four records, complete my contract, have a real good four-record run and just set myself up to be the biggest free agent of all time.
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