I think a lot of African-American kids don't have fathers to teach them how to dress, so you end up being taught by pictures in magazine and movies. You see cowboys, Indians, old Hollywood films, Cary Grant. It has an effect on you.

What's cooler than bein' cool?

Cool is not just one type of cool. Cool is confidence and knowing, i guess, what you are and being fine with it. Some people can be what people call “nerds” and they're cool because they know they're needs. They know what they are and they're so confident in knowing what they are that that makes them cool, and somebody aspires to be like them because they're fine with it. it's confidence, you know.

You look in the mirror everyday and you see the same thing. As an entertainer, you wanna see something new.

It's funny, I don't even consider myself a rapper, I don't consider myself a designer, or even an actor. I just like creating stuff and trying to make good work, whatever it is. I don't care if it's designing toothbrushes. It's just making cool stuff to leave behind, that's all it is, it's nothing more.

As a rapper, your verses are like a window in to who you are.

I don't mind opinions, because you like something or you don't like something, but to say things about your personal life? I'm like, "Man, let me quit reading this. 'Cause I'll stab everybody."