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.

When my daughter was born, that was the first time I cried from happiness.

Sometimes it takes time to get into what ideas actually mean to you. Even when you're not writing a song, it's like that.

I had no idea how much the stuff I was doing was affecting people outside Oakland. At the time, also, hip hop wasn't able to tour because all these clubs that let hip hop come in now, they would never have let hip hop come in.

I wanted to write a song about sexism, but I didn't want to do it in a mechanical way and be like, "Don't be sexist!" because that's not how I talk in regular life.

I was an avowed professional revolutionary by the time I was 15.

In high school, everybody rapped. You just pounded on the table.