When I fell in love with hip-hop, there was a terminology at the time called "battling." All that was just battling with other artists, but after Tupac and those incidents when it spilled into the street and turned into a negative situation, battling turned into a beef. A whole new dynamic.

"Get Rich or Die Tryin". That's the universal struggle. When I say it it might seem a bit negative but if a working class person says it it means they're determined.

Even the worst that happens to you can be converted into GOLD if you are clever enough.

My grandmother, she's been the positive portion of my life the entire time. She raised us Baptist, and when I got old enough to say I didn't want to go to church, she didn't force me. She was cool.

Move before you think you are ready. It is as if you are making it a little more difficult for yourself, deliberately creating obstacles in your path When you feel that you must work harder to get to your goal because you are not quite prepared, you are more alert and inventive. This venture has to succeed and so it will.

When I fell in love with hip-hop, there was a terminology at the time called "battling." All that was just battling with other artists, but after Tupac and those incidents when it spilled into the street and turned into a negative situation, battling turned into a beef. A whole new dynamic.

Chris Lighty was a huge portion of my actual career. It's difficult to adjust to not have someone around that's in your life, in your life.