I have tried to write songs quickly that get scrapped. I've also taken a long time on songs that get scrapped because you can over-think something, and you've squeezed the life out of it. As opposed to work of art, it looks like a really great work of craftsmanship.

A lot of what we say and do are regurgitated things that have to do with what we think we're supposed to be saying and doing.

People give out compliments because it's polite.

I am a person who always feels like I am not doing the right thing because there's always so many things that need to get done.

Becoming a father made me a lot more sentimental than I ever was before. I never cried at movies before I became a parent. I feel music more intensely. I think of my political ideas as ideas about how I want to interact with other human beings as opposed to abstract theories about how the world should be.

I always write knowing that people will hear it, but also hoping they'll see it. So a lot of times I make lyrical decisions based on what looks better. Also I write based on what I saw for a video. I obsess over lyrics in the hopes that they'll endure in different ways. I'm very precious about it.

All of a sudden it became that hip hop didn't used to be about partying; hip hop used to be about putting out a message.