I like to deal with things I heard about, ... People are always getting their house broken into around the holidays. That's when the crime rate goes up.

I think that my "Let's get it done! Let's have fun! Let's make a great movie!" attitude helped. I rarely have problems on my movies with egos and attitudes.

Keep everybody out your business, that's how you do it. And I mean everybody. It ain't about having a relationship outside of the house. It's about having a relationship within each other. When something go down don't be calling your sister or your mother; I'm not gonna be calling my brother or uncles. We're gonna work it out.

I won't do anything for money. I won't compromise my manhood.

People are still tied to their hoods, and it's usually not the artist, it's usually the friends and instigators who get it popping.

As far as producing, once we started shooting, I soon realized where the critical decisions about the movies were really being made, and it wasn't on the set. They were being made in the production meetings. That's where producing a movie happens. And that's where I wanted to be. I didn't just want to be a piece, a pawn being played. I wanted to take part in the creative process, and that's how I sort of got introduced to the idea.

Well, for the transition from rapper to actor, I was fortunate that director John Singleton pursued me for about two years to be in Boyz 'N the Hood. I really wasn't even thinking about acting at the time, since I was singularly focused on being the best rapper in the world. So, that was really a blessing, because I wasn't really taking him seriously.