As an artist when you come into [hip hop] you don't know nothing really. You just know what you do and it's free of the influences of money, power and all these other things people learn about the further they get into it.

You're always going to need those folks that introduce certain things to the next generation and I fit in that sense.

Hip hop is kinda funny because the further you get into it the more at risk you are.

Rap is purging itself from the things it didn't need and it's allowing the younger dudes to come up. With that being said you're always going to need people from that golden era.

It used to be when a good record was about to drop you heard it out of every car and every kid with a boom box was playing it 3-4 weeks before it came out. Now it's not like that you just see ipods left and right and there's no anticipation factor. I have yet to see something drop with the anticipation that Illmatic had or that Ready 2 Die and Cuban Linx had. Those records had real anticipation factors.

I got a little criticism for working with Puff [Daddy] and I got some criticism for doing the special but you have to weigh the good with the bad. I got more of a good response than bad when I did those two things.

I'm just the type of person that realizes that someone is always going to have something to say so I could care less about it.