I came up in battling and just wanting to compete. Even if you had no real problem with someone, you just wanted to compete.

Like I said, as long as I'm consistent and I try to put my best foot forward, and work as hard as I possibly can, everything else will fall into place - God'll take care of everything.

I read every fan forum and every blog, and every message board, and every chat room. I read it all. There's nothing online that I'm not aware of.

Up late talking to the fans on a website, That's the only thing that send ya man off to bed right

Mixtapes are extremely important, especially for New York or North East artists. They allow you to be creative, to get feedback and criticism, but most of all, it gets your name out there. I would say about 90-100% of my success was down to the mixtapes.

I think the time in between albums, as much as it was not anticipated, it was much-needed, and very helpful, very useful. I've done nothing but hone my craft, and get better, and learn, and gather information in the process. So I'm grateful for it in retrospect.

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