Run DMC brought us out of that underground-only feel. They brought rap above ground and made it respectable as an art form to mainstream music.

I've been fighting my whole career to show a different side and prove naysayers - not prove them wrong, because I don't think you should get your energy from negative people.

Do not turn into just cookie-cutter producer, cookie-cutter this, but a producer that people say wow, when they do something it's great or just unique or whatever.

I used to love to draw. I didn't want to go to art class because I felt that would be too corny when I was young, but architectural drafting was the cool thing to do because there was more precision. It taught me a lot about building and structures and doorways and frames and windowsills.

People wanted to have fun more than they wanted to learn from their music, and that's where the shift started to happen.

My son Darrel could recite 'Straight Outta Compton' at two years old. He loved it! You can expose your kids to anything as long as you sit there and explain it to them.

I’m a B-boy at heart. I still like rhyming. It’s just the radio game is like Chinese arithmetic. It’s hard to know what nuts to crack. But I still love music, been dropping music. Never stopped really.