When you step outside of school and have to teach yourself about life, you develop a different relationship to information. I've never been a purely linear thinker. You can see it in my rhymes. My mind is always jumping around, restless, making connections, mixing and matching ideas, rather than marching in a straight line. That's why I'm always stressing focus. My thoughts chase each other from room to room in my head if I let them, so sometimes I have to slow myself down.

You put the right artist on the right track in the studio and leave the door open to let God in.

I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man!

As kids we didn't complain about being poor; we talked about how rich we were going to be and made moves to get the lifestyle we aspired to by any means we could. And as soon as we had a little money, we were eager to show it.

When people say stuff like, "Oh, that's soft rock. I don't listen to that," I find that elitist. It's music-racist.

Hip-hop gave a generation a common ground that didn't require either race to lose anything; everyone gained.

How could I be out there and not do anything?