I quit high school on my birthday. It was my senior year and I didn't see the point. This was 1962, and I was ready to make music.

I've always loved War's Low Rider and Sly Stone's Thank You, and I just wanted to put my take on them.

I woke up when I was 14 and went to speak to my mother and scared us both to death.

In my day, we didn't have the cocaine, so we went out and knocked somebody over the head and took the money. But today, all this cocaine and crack, it doesn't give kids a chance.

Mama tried to save us from the streets, but the streets were too strong.

When I saw corruption, I was forced to find truth on my own. I couldn't swallow the hypocrisy.

As a boy, I believed freedom for America meant freedom for me. There was a time I believed every word spoken.