Maybe Hell ain't a place meant for us to Burn, maybe Earth is Hell and just a place for us to Learn.

We're trying to teach artists that if you're smart enough to develop the material, then you're smart enough to market and promote the album too.

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.

We get better product when the focus is on the fans and the artists - all artists; musical artists; singers, the graphic designers, the painters, the DJs, I mean everybody, the writers. We can't allow ourselves to feel as if we're not important in the equation when we are everything!

I'm proud of [Big] K.R.I.T., I'm proud that the person that came after me shares so many similar views [as mine]. From him being a producer, to him being a God-fearing man - being political in a sense that he wants to see the poverty-stricken do better. He wants to be the spokesperson for them.

We can't keep begging or expecting people to give us an opportunity to make a movie or to represent our culture in the right way. They're not from or neighborhoods and communities so of course they can't truly relate to our experience. It's our responsibility to properly protect our people and to properly give them opportunities for employment.