My real name's Rakim - my parents named me after the god MC himself.

I want to be the first guy to help people accept everybody for who they are. I'm talking about colors, religions, sex, everybody. My music is for everybody, it's not just for one kind of group.

Probably, violent things I've done when I was younger, was probably the most despicable thing that I've ever done.

Sometimes I feel like what's hard for fashion designers to do is take looks from off the runway and actually put it into existence, into reality. That's really the hard part.

I used to be homophobic, but as I got older, I realized that wasn't the way to do things. I don't discriminate against anybody for their sexual preference, for their skin color... that's immature.

My real name's Rakim - my parents named me after the god MC himself.

I take cabs if I need to get somewhere or I take car service. I don't drive, I wouldn't mind riding a bike... People think that because you become an entertainer you gotta have this rock star thug image. I'm an artist, man. I'm going to live like an artist.