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Johnson\u2019s main message to the Essence crowd of onlookers centered around the power of legacy. \u201cLegacies can be positive, they can be healthy, they can be unhealthy, they can be material, they can be spiritual, they can be foundational, etc.,\u201d he said. \u201cLeave all the negative stuff behind, all the things that might have scared you. You don\u2019t have to claim that. This is your life. It\u2019s not a dress rehearsal. You are the final say in your life, and you don\u2019t need anyone\u2019s permission. You don\u2019t have to prove anything to anyone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Most of what he covered at the festival were words he also delivers to his students regularly, such as stressing ownership as a key to success and happiness and looking at artificial intelligence in a different light.\u00a0\u201cWe (African Americans) are further behind in understanding the super saleability for us of AI. We are more fear based with it. I really wanted to unlock them from the shackles of fear. How to use AI is one of the things I try to teach my students at Howard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Life Lessons Secured<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Johnson began teaching at Howard in 2017 with his approach to taking lessons beyond what may appear on the surface. \u201cThe old structures are antiquated. For me, teaching entertainment law in a silo without teaching why it\u2019s important and how it is applied is irresponsible. I teach my class from the perspective of what are core concepts to think about. There\u2019s a lot of understanding that goes into what entertainment law is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Johnson\u2019s time at the university represented a period not only when he secured some of the best friendships of his life, but also a period of numerous life lessons. \u201cWhat I was given at Howard was the freedom to not have to worry about whether something happened because I was Black. We all have our issues as brothers and sisters, but that was one thing I didn\u2019t have to worry about. If I exceled, I could excel and it may be personal, but it wasn\u2019t necessarily because I was Black. I\u2019ve gone to other places where the opposite is true,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Johnson continued: \u201cI needed to be somewhere where people weren\u2019t checking me, trying to keep me down. I\u2019ve had very interesting experiences at Howard but at the end of the day I could get in a corner and do what I needed to do without a side-eye and not \u2018what are you doing in this library?\u2019 It\u2019s where I belong.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While at Howard, he developed the knowledge that he could do anything and demonstrated that looking at his own progression. \u201cYou\u2019re talking to a piano major who graduated with a piano degree and went to Georgetown law school and business school. Tell me that\u2019s not doing anything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Key faculty such as\u00a0<\/span>Dr. Reppard Stone<\/a> and\u00a0<\/span>Geri Allen (B.Mus.\u201979 ),<\/strong><\/a> both formerly of the Jazz Studies program, were instrumental to his early Howard years in helping him discover who he was and how he could utilize that moving forward. \u201cI call myself a jazz artist, but I was always in a weird place. Traditionalists say that\u2019s not real jazz, but I studied under Geri Allen. I know that I know how to play. The idea we have to do one thing one way is crazy. I got those chops at Howard. I had to fight for my right and ability to play what I wanted to play on the steps on\u00a0<\/span>COFA<\/a> when we had \u2018lunchtime grooves.\u2019 We would move the pianos downstairs and have whatever little sound system we had.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But the most key component of his undergraduate experience at Howard was his peers, \u201cseeing those amazingly incredible students doing amazing and incredible things. I didn\u2019t know that was possible, but they were like me and I could do that. What I tell my students now is that anything I can do, you can do better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Going with the FLO\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Johnson secured his first demo deal with the famed Blue Note Records while he was a sophomore at Howard, after working on it in the basement of the College of Fine Arts building. Nesta Bernard<\/strong> (B.A.\u201974),\u00a0<\/strong>director of alumni affairs at the time and a friend of the family to Johnson, brought him to the attention of well-known entertainment lawyer Larkin Arnold (J.D.\u201969)<\/strong>.\u00a0\u201cLarkin took me under his wing. He said if you can make it through Howard, you can make it through anywhere.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The NAACP Image Award nominee has soared since Howard, including releasing several jazz albums that charted on Billboard. His next album, \u00a0\u201cJourni,\u201d is slated for release in October. The album is preceded by the current single of the same name. \u201cI\u2019m super-duper excited about what it is, about the next evolution. I grew up with R&B, hip-hop and go-go. You\u2019ll hear what I consider to be the most refined part of that put together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n