Before rap came along, I was, actually, actively in the streets; getting in trouble, doing the wrong thing.

Hip-hop is a competition culture. It's based around, "My DJ is better than you. My graffiti artist is better than you."

It's like they want to shut rappers down. They want to silence us. The Supreme Court says it's OK for a white man to burn a cross in public. But nobody wants a black man to write a record about a cop killer.

The trick with hip-hop-hip-hop is a sport. The only music that's really, really close to a sport. It starts off, "My DJ's better than yours. I can out-rap you, I can out-dance you, my graffiti piece is better than you." It's very competitive.

I think that a rap aficionado, the hardcore rap fan, will always go away from pop, in the same way a hardcore jazz fan will never think Kenny G is really a jazz artist. You gotta kind of know there's always going to be that purist who's going to be like if it ain't beats and rhymes, if there ain't a DJ, then that ain't Hip Hop.

You can't do an impersonation of somebody nobody knows.

I think men, growing up, you have to go through some form of hardship. You've got to harden the metal.