Being in the military just lets you know how helpless you are. You could train forever but you're still at the mercy of someone in the Pentagon, or somebody in the rear moving you around like a chess piece.

You have to come in on a professional level to make it, otherwise you just can't get into rap.

When you hit the wall, it's how fast you come back.

You've got the Wall Street situation, the sub-prime situation. You've got a black president. We've got wars. We've got unemployment. But the music doesn't reflect that. And I challenge anybody to show me a music that's on the radio that reflects that.

One of the things about powerful people is they have the ability to make it look easy.

You can't just sing the song and live another life.

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