It's just a feel-good album, man. I think it's like the happiest album I've made. My vibe always tends to be very positive, but there's something really special about this time. The time of making this record, where I am in my life, how I made the record, the process, where I made the record in the Bahamas in a very peaceful location -- everything just came together. I allowed the creative process to do what it wanted to do, and it was just really easy. It was really easy, and I thought there are things on this record that people haven't heard me do. I mean, as you said, the albums have always been very diverse. It's virtually impossible for me to make a record that sounds the same throughout. I can't do it. Yet there still seems to be some moments here that I haven't heard myself do. On that note, when you were trying to get your first record deal, did you have A&R people telling you to focus in on one genre instead of being so eclectic?

No. Well, first of all, I always made sure I had creative control and the people that signed me were very honest with me. They said that they really loved the music and they believed in it but they had no idea if it would sell or not. I thought that was the most honest answer I could have gotten, and I ended up going with that label at the time, which was Virgin, even though I was offered more money somewhere else. Because I knew these people would stick with me and they would grow with me and allow me to express myself freely.

Where did you get that confidence from?

Well, for some reason, I always knew what I wanted to do. I even passed up record deals. People were offering me contracts, money, and I would turn them down because they did have a specific idea of what they wanted me to do, and that wasn't me. Doing that at age 17, 18, 19, I don't even know how I turned it down. Something inside of me wouldn't let me do it, and I'm glad I did, because we wouldn't be sitting here talking right now.

On the new album's title track, you talk about your parents and how they were in a biracial relationship. You grew up in New York and L.A., and people think there these really cool melting-pot kinds of places. How realistic was that, and how hard was it for you during that time period?

More liberal than other places, but you still had to deal with it. The racial issue doesn't escape these places, but I had a very secure childhood and I was around people that were very loving. You know, I was around a lot of mixed people, so, for me, race was never an issue. It really never was, I didn't even understand it. I knew that my parents looked different, but I never thought about it until society put it in my face.

In terms of the music that you heard in the house, what kind of stuff were your parents playing?

Everything. Jazz, a lot of Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughan, Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Mingus. You know, a lot of soul from that era, so a lot of Motown, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Temps, Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder and then Curtis Mayfield, Stax, Isaac Hayes, Al Green. All kinds of classical music, blues, Aretha -- you know what I mean. It was just everything -- go to the opera. Growing up in New York at that time was great. And rock 'n' roll didn't really happen until I moved to L.A.

Your mom was in the arts. Did you have a romanticized idea of it? Did you come home and ever have to explain the records you were playing or the way you looked?

No, I had to explain it to her. They were very supportive, but at the same time, it was a strict West Indian-style household. There were rules and regulations ... ways that you would dress people and how you dealt with things, and I'm glad that I had that. &