Rappers should just be able to perform what they create and satisfy the people that like and love them.

Someone like Jay-Z does have a timeless quality, but it's much different than ours. You can look back at something like "At the Hop" by Danny and the Juniors or the music that was on American Bandstand in the 1950s-'60s.

I think too much of the music industry is for the lawyer and accountant mentality.

You should be a person inside the world with knowledge of your terrain. And if you lock yourself into the 2,000-by-3,000-square-mile, lower-48 box of the United States, you're going to be frustrated by its limitations. You gotta think outside the box.

I think right about now we have to beware of marketed Malcolms and Martins. Real people do real things.

We didn't invent music, so it's been here for a reason, and it has powers for a reason. So we should pay attention to it, because we might not know the clear answers but we should at least acknowledge that it is something there. To not be playin around with it.

People aren't going to support an artist just because they have an audio file. They have to feel a real connection.