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.

When you work for others, you are at their mercy. They own your work; they own you. Your creative spirit is squashed. What keeps you in such positions is a fear of having to sink or swim on your own. Instead you should have a greater fear of what will happen to you if you remain dependent on others for power. Your goal in every maneuver in life must be ownership, working the corner for yourself. When it is yours, it is yours to lose - you are more motivated, more creative, more alive. The ultimate power in life is to be completely self-reliant, completely yourself.

A thug is what I want and a thug is what I need. And my friends don't understand, and I think it's jealousy.

I'm a track star running through life, chasing my dream.

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.

I done been to the pearly gates, they sent me back said the good die young I ain't eligible for that

When I'm actually creating music, I try not to listen to the hip-hop records that are going on, because I think, subconsciously, we steal from each other. If you're listening to a record and it's really hot, then you'll be looking for something that feels like that, or that has a version of it.