Early in my career, people wanted to hear music about protest, about trying to change things.

I identify with the bottom of the pyramid, because, outside of having money, I am at the bottom of the pyramid.

You really have to challenge yourself to come out of those parameters that they put you in, even if that's your job.

If you give anybody the chance, they can always make a decent human being out of themselves. It's the people that don't have a chance, that we look down at like they're monsters or they're animals or that they want something different than the rest of us.

Nowadays, you can be yourself. You don't have to put on façade. You can be who you are and still be just as successful as the ones who put on the fake façade. You know, it's like reality is just as important as fiction.

Rap is just somebody getting something off his chest. That's all it is.

I'm not actually from Compton - I'm from South Central Los Angeles, and my father still lives in the same house I grew up in, so I'm there all the time.