I just don't think it's very dignified to ask people to like you. You can just wind up being somebody's ottoman.

In the early '90s, when I really started to find my voice, I was reading a lot of books, and I was moved by the writers, like Chinua Achebe, and I wanted to be able to write rhymes that were as potent as what I was reading.

I don't wanna get into that space where a lot of guys now, their solo album is like eight or 10 songs with other people, you don't get an idea of who this guy is. I just wasn't interested in that.

Hip-hop is rock & roll. What the hell is Wu-Tang but Motorhead?

Good art provides people with a vocabulary about things they can't articulate.

There's just some dysfunctionalism with artists.

I don't hate nobody. I hate certain conditions that are inflicted upon the people - and they're helpless with it.