My father died early. My mother died early. I started hanging with the gangs. I'm on the streets; I'm committing crimes. And the music came along, and this music just took me on a different road.

When you start a business, go for the lowest hanging fruit.

Redemption means you just make a change in your life and you try to do right, versus what you were doing, which was wrong. So I think a lot of people get hooked on drugs and when they get over that addiction they go out and they try to talk to kids and they try to work in rehab centers.

It really really sunk into me when I went to Europe and they take rap so much more serious than we do here. That was the first time I ever heard rap considered folk music. And sometimes somebody will make you understand like, "Hey, what you doin' is serious, don't play it lightly 'cause it's changin' my life."

A lot of people play single to work some angle. I'm always about keeping it real. If that's how I'm living, that's how I'm living.

...As an artist, you need the naysayers and the nonbelievers to add fuel to your creative fire.

You can't get what you want all the time in life.