I would have had a clause in my contract; I would've definitely put some fine print in my contract that said, "If the president leaves, I'm leaving." That'd be the bottom line.

Most important to me is being able to release music and have an astounding relationship with whoever would be distributing the music.

A few more albums, a few more years, I'll be like Peter Petrelli in Heroes. I'll be some type of rap super-monster or something.

I'm not in a competition with any other artist, anything that's goin' on - I'm strictly competing with myself.

Sometimes you gotta stand by your failures to recognize your success

I get a lot of support from the West Coast. But I think that's beginning to change. I think, as the awareness goes up, and as I continue to be consistent, more people from my area come around, and they're converted into Joe Budden fans.

You don't need to be at a major, not at all. Technology being the way it is, and record sales being the way it is, there are not too many things that you need to depend on a label for that you can't go out and do yourself.