Heard snippets of some of your songs—they’re really good. You’re already the best in the world at one thing—it’s not easy to be very good at multiple things. How did you get into making music and when we can expect an actual mixtape or album?

Kanye’s someone who talks about it—you’re put in a box when you’re doing something [well]. I feel that the bridge, the crossover, shouldn’t be difficult and people should be less scared of it. You don’t have to be passionate about just one thing in life. There’s no reason why you can’t do other things.

I started playing guitar when I was 13. I’d written a few songs on the guitar over some time, I’d written a book of poetry, and I got a book of lyrics that I had when I was a kid. I was frustrated because I didn’t have the strength or the movement that I wanted to have in my voice. I just couldn’t maneuver it the way I wanted to maneuver it, but I caught the bug. I was like, “Okay, I’m gonna go and do my vocal lessons and practice and practice and practice and practice.” And I’ve progressed; I’ve got like 250 songs I’ve written or mostly co-written.

In terms of when—it’s definitely getting to a place where in my heart I feel like I’ve put so much into it that I’d love to share it with my fan base. I want them to hear, because when you’re a racing driver and working for these big corporate companies, it’s hard to be vulnerable and connect. It’s always, “How do the tires feel?” And they ask you every frickin’ weekend, so most of the time it’s, “They feel the same as always.” [Laughs.] But you can say what you want with music. You can spill your heart out if you want to. You can say shit you wanna say and not be bothered by whether sponsors are gonna be upset with it.

The Williams sisters, Tiger Woods, Jackie Robinson—every single one of them across the board has a story of triumph or dealing with subtle or maybe not-so-subtle prejudice while breaking into a predominantly white sport. I haven’t read a lot of that about you. ​

Uh, yeah, I mean, well...I relate my life a lot to Cool Runnings the movie.

[Laughs.]

Cool Runnings is one of my favorite movies. There’d never been a Jamaican bobsled team. When they went to people and said, “Would you like to sponsor the Jamaican bobsled team?” people would laugh. And my dad would tell me about going to all these companies, “How would you like to sponsor the first black Formula 1 driver?” And I just imagine them doing the same thing. And now they’re probably like, “Shit...”

Also, when they first arrived on top of the mountain with the real old sled and everyone stopped—it was just like me and my dad. We arrived, the go-kart was stuffed in the back of the trunk, and all these people had tents and RVs and the best stuff. And we were just so amateur, you know? And it wasn’t like they stopped but they all looked. And it was almost exactly like that. Like, all eyes are on us. “What are they doing here?” We were the only black family. And it was just like that every weekend we arrived. ​

