Rap has been a path between cultures in the best tradition of popular music.

Shakespeare was a man who wrote poetry. I'm a man who writes poetry. Why not compare yourself to the best?

You can't turn a bad girl good, but once a good girls' gone bad, she's gone forever.

It was a very intense and stressful situation. There was playing in the Johnny-pump (an opened fire hydrant) and the ice-cream man coming around and all of these games that we'd play, and suddenly it would turn just violent and there would be shootings at 12 in the afternoon on any given day.

Electing a black man named Barack Obama President in the same country that elected George W. Bush - twice! - is as far-fetched as a hustler from Marcy performing at that President's inauguration. But it happened.

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

The fans get to see you, and you can do great by your record if you have a great performance or a great night there. That's all part of the business. But at their core, awards shows are not really a sincere thing. For a lot of years, the artists had to pay to play their own set.