What inspired me as a child is the same thing that inspires me now: being nice. I always try to one up everybody with verses and be lyrical and just stand for the art.

You can have a phenomenal booth artist and he can get in there and be a technician in the booth and it won't translate on the stage. I think that's what makes emcees emcees. Some rapper dudes are great rappers but it don't translate on stage.

Hip-hop definitely saved my life. Being able to write about the things I was doing, the things I was seein' and all that stuff, putting that on paper and coming into my own as Joell Ortiz. That's why I don't have a stage name, because I chose to talk about everything under the sun that happened to me or next to me in my music.

I'm really, really, really, really conservative with money. I got to give myself a lot of excuses to spend money, because I come from nothin'.

Back in the days the great emcees made singles, had great shows, won battles, had all the girls and dressed fly. That¹s what I'm about...the total package emcees.

If you can perfect the booth, the stage and just your persona, like maybe in interviews and when people talk to you, then you're a full well-rounded emcee in my opinion.

What inspired me as a child is the same thing that inspires me now: being nice. I always try to one up everybody with verses and be lyrical and just stand for the art.