Well, I met Akon two and a half years ago. I’ve been signed to him for a long time. We met in the studio through my manager. I played him my demo that I made when I was 15 years old, and he loved it. So we got in the studio a few weeks later, and the chemistry was crazy. Like, he’d say something and I’d be like, "Yo, I was just about to say that." And the great thing about Akon is that he gave me 100 percent creative control on the entire album. I got to choose the songs, I got to choose who I work with, every little detail.

For the first two years out in L.A., nothing was happening for me. We were doing hundreds of shows. Every day we would do something. And it wasn’t happening for me. And people were like, "Look, you have white skin, you’re Latin, you’re not going to be making it in the R&B industry — you’re not." And, literally, right when we were on the edge and starting to talk about going back home and just giving up and moving on, Akon got in touch with us. It was an emotional moment for me. There was a lot of crying, because I had chased the dream for so long, but at the last second, Akon came into the picture.