Once I looked in the mirror and decided this is who I am, and I'm not scared of who I am, and I'm not scared that I can't be like you, and I'm good with just doing me, that's when I found myself, as a man.

The times that we are in, it's something that you can only feel in the air. You don't even have to talk about it. You don't need the news or the Internet to watch it. You can walk outside and just feel it.

I don't really believe in the type of pressure that people are wanting to put on the type of music that I make.

You can't have people listen to you unless you come to their world and then bring them to yours.

The more people I meet, the more cultures I start to embrace, the more people I open myself up to - it's a growing process I'm excited about. But it's also a challenge for me, to be at this level and still be able to connect with somebody who's living that everyday life. At first it was something I struggled with, because everything was moving so fast. I didn't know how to digest it. The best thing I did was go back to the city of Compton, to touch the people who I grew up with and tell them the stories of the people I met around the world.

My grandma always said, "Where there's a will, there's a way." I think it's just naturally in our DNA to be able to survive. We was always taught that: to survive. When you talking about slavery, it's to survive.

How am I influencing so many people on this stage rather than influencing the ones that I have back home?