“There were times when gangs would approach me, but my father was way s...” — Kerby Jean-Raymond Quote

There were times when gangs would approach me, but my father was way stronger than them. They would come make threats and stuff, and I was like, 'You don't know the opposition I've got upstairs. I'm not scared of you.'

I've always felt like an outcast. My aesthetic is very high-end, but I still get classified as streetwear. There's really no other reason for than other than my age, the way I look, and where I'm from.

I don't think the narrative I was stuck in - the 'black' designer category - was going to go away anytime soon.

The work of black creatives seems to always get undermined in one way or another, and that's what this new generation is actively changing by speaking up. We aren't accepting group categorization and group classifications to describe our work anymore - it just leads to group dismissal.

When I did 'Gangs,' I didn't have a manager, a PR or stylist.

Most of the kids that I meet in the street are serious hardened criminals that I meet in the street, never had a mother and a father to love them, to protect them, to teach them right from wrong and lead them out of crime and gangs and stuff like that.

I know people in gangs; I could have went down that route.

I think with Shahid Khan I knocked at the door of Indian cinema. It was a beautiful character and Anurag Kashyap managed to bring that on screen with the same beauty. I was lucky to play him and become a part of a milestone film like 'Gangs of Wasseypur.'