I will probably have a tendency to lean toward trying to resolve the issues that negatively impact black people, but the overall picture and the overall power is achieved in bringing all impoverished people together. The common denominator is pain, because we all suffer through the deaths of loved ones and eventually suffer death.

I realize it's about the artists and about the fans. Those are the people who truly have the power. It's like politics, we give away our power to representatives and we give it away to our President. That's what I'm showing with this 2-M-1 movement.

I'm giving my fans the songs that they want to hear from me. Why do we love to hear ourselves being downgraded. Why do we love to hear the negative situations that we see in our lives daily? I'm not trying to make sense of it, I'm not giving any solutions, I'm just tossing the question.

I can admit there are some problems in hip hop but it is only a reflection of what's taking place in our society. Hip hop is sick because America is sick.

We have to be very clear about what we're doing to our music. We're giving away free albums. Now think about the psyche of the ordinary man, we don't respect anything that's free. Anything that we get easy has no validity.

My passion comes from the things that have historically happened to black people in Mississippi. I can honestly say that most of the things that I've accomplished in my life have come from my spirituality and my belief in God.

Faith allows me to feel that as long as I'm in line with God everything will be O.K. and that I'll make it through whatever.