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When I first started, I thought I was wack. Lyrically, I thought I was wack. The thing I had over everybody was that I was the realest rapper.
I got older - 16, 17 - I was like, "I want to do my own thing." I wasn't seeing eye to eye with my parents. It wasn't what they wanted for me.
It takes a lot of people hours to make music because they focus so much on one thing. I just do it, and I make something you can just vibe to.
I want to be the most melodic artist. 'His music ability, the way he write, his creativity is undeniable.' I want people to say that about me.
A great song can come from anybody. A great performance can come from anybody. It doesn't matter who you are, and that's truly what I believe.
In the past, my process would start with a sample of another song, and I'd chop it up and use that as the basis of the song that I was making.
I am a huge fan of R&B. I love R. Kelly and want to be the person every chick gets with, and 'Ghostdini' is one of the best albums I ever did.
I try to take a couple of young guys under my wing and tell them what I've learned, because you can't teach nobody if you don't know anything.
My father's family came from Virginia and Philadelphia. He wasn't a brother who talked a lot. He was a working man, a quiet, blue-collar dude.
We're more Christian than the Pope. And, I mean, that's not our religion. We pray to the Gods of our conquerors... all black and brown people.
If you listen to the old Rock I always had one tone of rapping, but now I'm learning how to stretch out my voice and use it in different ways.
I'm really, really, really, really conservative with money. I got to give myself a lot of excuses to spend money, because I come from nothin'.
I'm never too nervous about releasing music. I like to see what the people think because it helps me make myself better as an artist for them.
Hip-hoppers are not interpreting what hip-hop is, and when we do interpret it, we interpret it as something immature, unorganized, and outlaw.
Record companies feel they are the culture. Hip-hop has to begin to define, protect, and promote itself, and that's why we founded the Temple.
Wanna move out the hood and defeat that cancer I ask how she stay on her feet like dancers How she keep on adding paint to a life-size canvas.
We came from nothing really. One house. Ten people. Even days the lights was off. The worst days was not eating. Surviving off rice and toast.
When I do shows, I take pictures and make the fans feel like family. All of that really matters. That's the cheat code if you ain't got a hit.
It takes time to restore an old historic car - you can't just do it overnight. That's how I look at the administration that came before Obama.
I think people underestimate because I'm the rap guy, I'm a crazy guy, screaming all the time. But that doesn't mean that I'm not intelligent.
I don't take nothin' from no one. I do what I wanna do. And I'm gonna do that until the day I die. And if I can't do that, then I'll just die.
We try to teach women how to be strong, how to believe in themselves, how to make themselves happy, as opposed to pleasing someone else first.
I think every album you have to stretch further and further, give people another piece of you. But then I always try to deviate from the norm.
The story of 'Lasers' is my story. I didn't have to look too far to get subject matter for this record; it was stuff that was happening to me.
I think the fact that I made enough noise in the world that I might be remembered is an amazing achievement. You can't ask for more than that.
I stay busy and projects look for me. I aint goin nowhere no time soon and that's how I continue to evolve. By stayin relevant and makin hits.
I don't really like the sound of Auto-Tune. I don't like when it's extremely audible, when you're able to detect it easily. I don't like that.
I like to revamp things; like, I make to make things better in my eye, but I don't put out own lines... I just collab with my favorite brands.
I listen to a lot of really old western and country music. There's a lot of cool stuff in there... all the heartbreak of the country darkness.
I never grew up on Jodeci. I never grew up on things like that 'cause my dad was a preacher, and he kind of kept us away from music like that.
Pop culture mirrors culture, and, I think, as a rapper, hip-hop in a lot of ways mirrors the things that are happening in urban neighborhoods.
Throw it up y'all, throw it up, Throw it up, Let's show these fools how we do this on that west side. Cause you and I know it's tha best side.
The only thing America respects is power and power concedes nothing. After the LA Riots, they tried to calm us down and nothing changed since.
When you follow your heart, you're never supposed to do things because of what you think people might say. You do it for the opposite reasons.
I've been pretty focused my entire life, and now that I have a family, I'm just going to keep that focus, but it's going to be a family focus.
It was important that I became successful. People say they do it for the love, and yes, you do it for the love, but you want to be successful.
Triple 6 Mafia and Mystikal in Atlanta was one of my first shows. I remember how sweaty and smashed up everybody was, and it was so punk rock.
Queen Latifah once came up to me and said 'Bebot' was her favorite song. She said, 'I don't know what you're talking about, but it feels dope!'
With So Solid, we had overnight success and I bought stupid stuff with my money, I bought a 35k car while I was still living in a council flat.
I could wake up six in the morning, go downstairs and record. I learned how to use ProTools and everything. Whenever I felt it, I could record.
The world is really run by the Web. There's so much information out there that you can click and keep going down the rabbit hole finding stuff.
The things that I leave creatively are going to stay here long past me. That's the reason why the album is called '4Eva Is a Mighty Long Time.'
I started growing my hair in December '89. I was seventeen. I signed my record deal and said I ain't combing my hair no more. I don't have too.
I'm recording freely, and if I make a song, I release it immediately, so I'm more likely to believe in one song at a time as opposed to albums.
If you have no soul you can gut it out. You know, like a marionette, you'll just follow what seems to actually give you whatever you ain't got.
I'm actually a very honest person, and sometimes I end up like, 'Man, I said too much.' It's hard for me not to tell the truth when you ask me.
I have a slight bit of OCD, I think. I'm not walking around flipping light switches. But when I say I'm going to do something, I have to do it.
I'm not inherently the most politically or, like, socially conscious rapper, you know? You're not just going to wake up tomorrow and be Common.
As an immigrant, you're constantly thinking about how you're perceived on a community level, and a lot of times it's just on a community level.
Me, myself, I'm not a star. I'm just a regular guy who has a great rap album and is the protégé of Dr. Dre. But I'm the most down-to-earth guy.