I want to be a children’s hero… Children need heroes because heroes give hope; without hope they have no future.

One of the things that sells music is when the artist is looked at as someone who's come up from the streets. Not just any streets, but the toughest, meanest streets of the urban ghetto. And that's called 'street credibility'.

Monsters work seven days a week and don't take vacations.

When I was growing up, kids used to talk about snitching... It never extended as a cultural norm outside of the gangsters.

Why is it that when we had rotary phones, when we were having folks being crippled by polio, that we were teaching the same way then that we're doing right now?

There is an educational cliff we are walking over right this very second.

One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me Superman did not exist. I was like what do you mean he's not real. And she thought I was crying because it’s like Santa Claus is not real and I was crying because there was no one coming with enough power to save us.