In the time of war, everyone was basically trying to live and manage the best they could. But you also had another period which was not a hard time at all - it was just a beautiful time. I lived in both eras. I got to fully experience and appreciate both the tragedy of Somalia and the beauty of it.

To reach your goal authentically is probably, in the end, going to mean much more to you than having reached it in a false way.

And any man who knows a thing, knows he knows not a damn, damn thing at all.

I'm writing from a place of - a center of authenticity, somewhere that only I know how to write from.

It's not longer 'Look what I can do, I can do it better then you.' It's just I am.

Hip-hop in Africa has been very often a duplication of an American experience, but in a context that's totally alien to it.

I do think that some of my songs, like Take a Minute, are like the train between the two worlds. It starts out with the question of "how did Gandhi ever withstand the hunger strikes and all / he didn't do it to gain power or money as I recall," and its sweep reaches all the way to this part of the world. I think maybe I'm a translator, because I lived in both worlds and truly understand them. I understand the discontent that comes from not having. But I also understand the anxiety that comes from wealth and convenience.