I won't lay down my principles for any kind of recognition or any kind of position or trying to be more famous. It's just not in me. I'd rather be a man. And then to have all this crazy stuff on my conscience.

America eats its youth like reptiles...Educat e yourself before they dumb you down.

If you really think back to the culture or just black America before rap music took off, New York could have been Paris.

When I was six, God was a white man with a big beard riding on a white cloud. That's the image television pumps.

I think rap music is brought up, gangster rap in particular, as well as video games, every other thing they try to hang the ills of society on as a scapegoat.

I don't listen to nothing while I'm in the studio, because I don't want to be influenced by anybody else.

You don't wanna mess up what you've done. It's like Jordan coming back: You're scared to mess up the legacy.