With his sophomore album Kaleidoscope Dream in stores today, Miguel stopped by Power 105’s “The Breakfast Club” for a candid interview. Among other things, the “Adorn” singer opened up about his past creative missteps, rumors of his sexuality, beef with singer Lloyd, the pesky songwriting plagiarism accusations from Roscoe Dash, and the current state of R&B.
On his look when he first came out: “Looking back, I did look odd though… In the midst of trying to maintain some kind of individuality, while being marketed a certain way, I was just trying to be myself in the midst of being pressured to be something I wasn’t. You know when someone rushes you to make a decision, sometimes you don’t make the best decision because you’re trying to keep up.”
On how he’s changed: “I’m much more sturdy as a person and I’ve just found what complements me and who I really am.”
On the gay rumors: “I think at first, kind of getting acclimated to the fact that people are watching and everything you do is scrutinized, I had to take a step back. Now when I look at everything, I just know that first and foremost is the music. I don’t want to do anything that detracts from who I am as an artist. People are gonna say what they’re gonna say.”
On why he released his album in parts: “We consume music in smaller doses; just being online, you’re discovering a new artist a song or two at a time. What I wanted to do was basically engage different types of music consumers. I just took the first three songs and put it out and the second three songs and put it out and the last three. And all together, it makes up this album… People don’t have to feel like they’re committing all their time at once.”
On his past issues with Lloyd: “It’s so retarded. It’s not even worth talking about. I ran into Lloyd… I approached him about it, man to man.”
On his experience at the 2012 BET Hip Hop Awards: “I did catch a couple of moments of tension between artists and certain other artists in the crowd. Like literally in the midst of performing, kinda like checking other artists they might have beef with.”
On his “beef” with Roscoe Dash: “Of all people, of course he’s gonna attack the R&B dude! I have no idea [if Roscoe really wrote Wale’s “Lotus Flower Bomb”]. I was asked to be a part of the song, so when I got the song, what was written was written by certain parties… I know what I wrote and I got credit for what I wrote.”
On the current state of R&B: “I think in general, R&B has gotten really lazy. It’s become more of a stereotype. When you think of R&B, you think of bedroom and you think sexy or R&B crooner. Buzz words… I’m just hoping to inspire non-lazy R&B music.”