I was a soul singer first and I'd write love songs. I find with soul music it's really hard to write about anything else. But I was 15 at the time when I was doing that and, to be honest, I'd never experienced love, so the words were kind of meaningless. With hip-hop music, it allowed me to talk about political and social things but also to tell stories.

Some cynical people may see that the only reason I'm doing something more mainstream is part of a strategy to become more successful but I just see it as a bonus. It just happened... that's the way it is and there's an opportunity there and we're going to take advantage of it. I'd rather if I'm going to be working as hard as I've been working for the last two years - non-stop, solid, no personal life, no break - then I want what I've been working on to be as successful as possible. And I will take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way.

I didn't make a film because I wanted a starring role. I made a film because I wanted to tell a story and I wanted to prove that I could direct.

I found very early on when I became a hip-hop artist that I loved telling stories. Actually, when I was trying to get a message across it was more powerful when I told a story, rather than if I used a metaphor or if I preached about an issue. And through doing that I realised that actually these stories were very visual in my head and I couldn't wait to make the videos.

Anyone who puts 110% into their work deserves as much success as they can get.

I love the way I make hip-hop and I refuse to make pop-rap. I don't refuse to make mainstream music, which is why I did a soul record. There was no reason why soul music couldn't get played on the radio and I still wanted to have a relationship with my record label. So, I really enjoyed doing the Strickland Banks album. But there's no point in my trying to release underground hip-hop music on a major label. That part of my talent, or part of my art, had to live somewhere else and feature film was the perfect vehicle for it.

I was a soul singer first and I'd write love songs. I find with soul music it's really hard to write about anything else. But I was 15 at the time when I was doing that and, to be honest, I'd never experienced love, so the words were kind of meaningless. With hip-hop music, it allowed me to talk about political and social things but also to tell stories.