I encourage more blacks and people of color to get a passport. That's one way to help put people on an equal platform.

Ever since I was a teenager, I was always kind of, like, checking myself. You know, like, "Come on man, don't get your head all swollen. Life and time itself will give you perspective on what you're doing." So, that's actually what's always been a reminder in my own head.

DJ culture always made us aware that the best records were going to come from the small shops

Never have so many men treated women like our foes. They call 'em hoes, but they might as well call them foes, 'cause you are totally against the existence of somebody who should live their life as an equal human being. If not, any man knows, it's like we're not equal. You know, women are usually a little better than us.

Nothing has more words and performance than rap music.

Downloadable music is the biggest musical phenomenon since the Beatles, and the music industry is slow to come to grips with that.

What made me want to become a recording artist; I was the first artist that was repeatedly asked by a label to record with them. That label was Def Jam Records.