I was forced to be an artist and a CEO from the beginning, so I was forced to be like a businessman because when I was trying to get a record deal, it was so hard to get a record deal on my own that it was either give up or create my own company.

Hip-hop is a perfect mix between poetry and boxing.

New York has a thousand universes in it that don't always connect but we do all walk the same streets, hear the same sirens, ride the same subways, see the same headlines in the Post, read the same writings on the walls. That shared landscape gets inside of all of us and, in some small way, unites us, makes us think we know each other even when we don't.

For me, being with Obama or having dinner with Bill Clinton... It's crazy. It's mind-blowing, because where I come from is just another world. We were just ignored by politicians, by America in general.

I seen the worst of the worst. I deserve every blessing I receive I'm from the dirt.

Treat my first like my last and the last like my first and my thirst is the same as- when I came.

I think Lil Wayne is extremely talented. I think he's one of the most talented ones out there.