PC: Man, it's a pleasure to speak with you. How are you doing my man?
Lloyd: It's good, man. I've been moving around a lot. I visited New Orleans in the past few weeks, visited Virginia, took a trip to Washington DC and caught me a Nationals game. I've been shooting out to Las Vegas on the weekends to be inspired by the world's greatest athlete [Floyd Mayweather] and also to engulf myself in REAL WATER, which is my latest and most recent investment, Alkalize water. And I have been recording new music in Atlanta during the night out. I've been training in the morning and going on night runs and catching up with my niece and catching up with my mother and my brothers. I guess all in between time just trying to single out who is the right woman for me. I guess I got a normal life for a 28 year old, or maybe not so normal life. Either way, it's good; all is well.
PC: The obvious question to that answer is, when do you sleep?
Lloyd: You know, that's the good thing. Pretty much everyone who is close to me always reminds me how imperative sleep is to one's health. I always felt like that one day, we will all sleep for a very long time, and I really never was a fan of missing out. I just never really liked it. Ever since I started making music, I always had to dedicate a certain amount of time to my craft, my passion. Whether that be spending hours in the studio or focusing on writing or speech or whatever goes into it. It takes hours and hours of my day as a kid and I was missing out on a lot of trips with my friends and field trips with the class. I missed those things and I never really liked that feeling, so even to this day, I feel like sometimes I may be missing out if I sleep too long. It's weird because after so long, you end up building a immunity to late hours and hard work and trying yourself and pushing yourself physically to the limit. And now Percy, I really feel I can't sleep well unless I am exhausted at the end of the day or else I would be restless. So I just try to stay busy. It keeps me out of trouble for the most part. There are so many other worse things I could be facing other then lack of sleep.
PC: Before we get into everything that you have going on musically, tell us about this REAL WATER.
Lloyd: REAL WATER is beyond alkalinity. It's been proven to heal people and it's been proven to be the best form of water for the human body. And it's made to balance us. Recently, I have really, really become a health freak in the past couple of years actually. It started with a fast for about 2 to 3 weeks where I didn't eat any foods. And in this fast, I started to feel closer to God by meditating and really having to discipline myself. I remember just always being...feeling like I was surrounded by temptation and it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Coming out of the fast, I never returned to eating meat. I'm a vegetarian and I just started doing research and reading and surrounded myself to people who was really involved in some sort of way, not just through family affiliations and being in Vegas a lot, but just the path that I was on; I wanted to be more aware to food health in general and the way the body works and I ended up at REAL WATER. I'm just really, really amazed by the healing capabilities of a good healthy body. To me, success is more than anything material. It's really about being able to go from point A to point B in life with a healthy and strong mind. REAL WATER is really the first of what I would like to think many ventures into the health world for me. It was not only smart financially, but morally as well. It was a big moral step for me in wanting to better myself and the people around me. So I drink REAL WATER and I encourage people to do so as well.
PC: There are a lot of stereotypes that surround R&B singers. You don't seem to be that guy though. I know this has just been a brief convo up to this point, but you seem to try to have it together in and out of the industry.
Lloyd: I will say this, I'm not perfect. My biggest asset, and some would say a flaw, is that I choose to follow my heart. And sometimes that path leads to fulfillment for myself, but sometimes it also leads to broken hearts along that path. I've always said that honesty is the key to happiness to success and ultimately the most romantic thing that a person could be; especially a guy. We are in a age where the world is smaller, but we also know the effect of seeing others, whether that be through social media, you see all of these great relationships fall apart through womanizing or physical abuse or just lack of communication or honesty. So I would rather tell someone, "Look, I'm not ready. I aint shit, I'm young, I'm dumb and I'm still trying to figure it out," rather than to lead them on to think that I am something I am not. I have comfort in being in my own skin. That's a start and that gives other people the option to say I love you or I hate you, either or, I know you. Luckily, I have a great mother who is a great role model. She has really showed me the importance of the opposite sex in the world. Therefore, I have never thought to strike a woman or hurt a woman purposely.
PC: Going back to Floyd Mayweather and a comment you made about him earlier, you said you are inspired by him. Some people that read this interview will ask, how can a musician be inspired by an athlete and moreso a fighter?
Lloyd: Floyd and Lloyd, there is the inspiration right there (laughing). They call me Lloyd Mayweather (laughing). You know, what I do and what he does is very similar. I find that athletes go hand in hand with the arts, and not only the arts, but it goes hand in hand...there is a basic blueprint to being successful that applies to every aspect of life, every business and every genre, and that is hard work, dedication, persistence and drive. And you gotta have passion. All of these things are key. Those are the things that I admire the most in people. I also understand the extremities of sometimes being the most passionate person in the room or the most passionate person in a circle. And having to inspire other people to get on board to want to follow your lead and that's what I get from watching Floyd. Not only that I get technique, the importance of detail and really, I get how incredible a human body is. You do something so much, it becomes second nature. For me, who is a health freak and loves to exercise and be outdoors, I always like to push myself a little further so I really embrace that first week feeling of being sore, and then 4 months in, I'm doing it with my eyes closed. The same goes for my music. The first time I tried to pick up a guitar, it was like the hardest thing in the world for me. It was awkward. I had no coordination; just so far from where I wanted to be. And then every day, I would play it for hours and hours until my fingers would bleed. Eventually, I could play a song and then I was playing my first song on stage, you know, and then eventually, I was playing a guitar in studio on a track. And it was just like that fulfillment to not only be my best, but the best possibly. But Floyd is the champ and when he became the champ, I was recording music professionally and it's crazy because my father was a musician; his father was a boxer. The passion was handed down to both of us and how important that can be and instrumental in ones life in becoming greater than ones father. My father started when I was a kid when I was just 2 years old and he was 27. Here I am 28 and I just left Dubai 2 weeks ago. I'm further than he was in his day, but what I keep is his foundation and his groundwork. Maybe I wouldn't be as inspired in music as I am today if it wasn't for him.
But the bottom line is, a fan is a fan is a fan, you know. I'm a fan of anything he does in his career and I'm definitely a fan of Floyd Mayweather. I observe everything Floyd does in the gym. The first time I watched him train, I observed everything he did, from his footwork to the way he looks when he's sparring and the energy in the room, I feed off of that the same way I would at a show. I wanted to know what he eats for breakfast. He's the best athlete in the world. I want to eat what he's eating for breakfast. And it is amazing for me to see him train.
PC: Do you have a prediction for Mayweather/Maidana?
Lloyd: Well, I respect any man that gets in the ring because I know what goes into it behind the scenes. So for Maidana to be in that ring with the champion, in so many aspects of his life, he is a champion as well. Of course, I'm a believer (laughing) in the world's greatest. So for me, I would think that Floyd will pull it off. But Floyd will tell you himself that no matter who he is facing, he doesn't take that for granted and if he's not taking it for granted, who's to say I should. What do I know? I think that if Floyd's mind is strong, which it usually is and if his heart is into it and if he's dedicated as he's always been, I think it will be the hardest thing that Maidana has ever faced in his boxing career, period.
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