I'm a positive dude.

I'm a man of few words.

I like white wine, Riesling.

I'm constantly buying records.

I don't have beef with anybody.

Not anyone can rap to my beats.

I'm a hermit, people rarely see me.

Embryo is one of my favorite groups ever.

Past, present, and future is where I'm at.

As long as I'm living decent, then I'm cool.

I'm quiet, so people might think I'm a mute.

Interviews are my least favorite thing to do.

The iPad is the greatest thing as far as kids.

I try to challenge my ears. I get bored easily.

I'm a laid back dude, I don't really get excited.

Basically my whole life is music, that's all I do 24-7.

I don't worry about collaborating. Whatever happens, happens.

Yesterday belongs to the dead. Tomorrow belongs to the living.

I'm usually bored with both gangsta rappers and underground ones, too.

If I'm really hyped to do something, I can do most of an album in a day.

Some people think I'm crazy, but I'm just a normal dude that loves music.

I grew up on Public Enemy, which had a message with great music behind it.

I've got about three or four rooms of records, and two rooms of instruments.

I do a few shows every year, but I'm mostly at home, making music. Day and night.

I think a lot of guys are influenced by 'Pinata.' I fathered a lot of styles off that album.

I guess I only work with versatile rappers, chameleons like Guilty Simpson, J Dilla, and Doom.

My family brainwashed me, like I'm brainwashing my children. They brainwashed me with good taste.

I used to memorize music when I was real young. Schoolwork, not so much. But music I could remember.

I get bored with music so I try to listen to things in different types of genre to see what's possible.

The equipment doesn't matter, it's the vibe you put into it. If the music sounds good, music sounds good.

My whole thing is that I make music regardless. Regardless of everything around me, I'll always make music.

I used to drink straight Hennessy, but I started drinking wine and champagne. It's easier to tour like that.

I listen to a lot of different things. I'll be listening to prog rock, then the next couple of hours - Indian.

At one point, I took a year off just to listen to music and really digest it. I listened to everything you could imagine.

Sometimes I will slow down the beat for one bar on purpose, just to see if the rapper can adapt his flow and stay on beat.

I made an electronic record in the vein of Cluster. I was programming synthesizers and drum machines and that sort of thing.

Dilla was a John Coltrane-type dude. He was always on a higher level. He inspired my music to become looser and more soulful.

I search for records that I've found on YouTube. If I can't get the record it doesn't matter to me, I'll bump the YouTube rip.

It's not easy to sound like Dilla, but you can make beats like Dilla with your computer, so that's why everybody sounds like Dilla.

My pops had me at the studio since I was born. That's why I got into music. He would let me go up on the controls and mess with stuff.

Prince Paul's one of my teachers. He's always been one of my main inspirations as far as interludes go and getting a little quirky at times.

I've always done music with so-called thug- or gangster-type lyricists. I've always been associated with that because I'm from the West Coast.

I studied jazz at home with my grandparents. They always had jazz dudes at the house, but I didn't study formally. I just hung around a lot of musicians.

Dizzy Gillespie would come by, eating gumbo. It was crazy. My grandparents were friends with all of them. Dee Dee Bridgewater, all of them, they'd come through.

If I sample a song, I usually make samples out of the whole album. Then I move on after that. Doesn't mean I'm going to release that whole album, but I do that.

I do it for myself and for like-minded people. Half the time I don't know why I make what I do. I'd do this if no one was listening. I'm stuck. I've got the curse.

As a kid, I was trying to copy what I heard. Namely, I was just listening to producers I looked up to, like 45 King and Marley Marl, and trying to do what they were doing.

I didn't want to put out 'The Unseen' because I thought I would be criticized. I thought everyone would think the sped-up vocals were a gimmick. I had to be convinced to put it out.

Dudes I work with have to be like-minded to where I just hand them a beat that has a chorus and they can do with them what they gotta do. If they can't do that, I usually don't work with 'em.

As far as hip hop, I ain't even gonna front, it was 'Rapper's Delight.' That was the first thing I heard where I was like, 'Whoa.' You take that beat and do something over it. I started collecting records after that, old records.

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