As far as rap goes, I grew up in Hollis, Queens, so early influences were people like Run DMC and LL Cool J.

My family was Jehovah's Witnesses, which is a really tough religion. It kind of deterred me from religion for a long time. They still practice, but I don't. But I always remained spiritual, and had a belief that there is a God. I'm trying to find my way, you know?

Half the hoes hate, half them love me. The ones that hate me only hate me cuz they ain't [expletive] me.

There's always something going on on movie sets. Even just from, you know, maybe you come in tired some days and you're not in your best mood. It's different when you're shooting movies because you're on a schedule and you gotta come with your A-game every day.

I've done a lot of films that all have been pretty edgy.

As far as rap goes, I grew up in Hollis, Queens, so early influences were people like Run DMC and LL Cool J.

A lot of people say I tried to emulate Tupac, but when I look back at my career, we're very different artists. I took pages out of Pac's book, of course, and lots of other rappers - Biggie, Nas - of course you take pages out of those books, but you eventually make it your own thing. And I think I did a good job of that.