I don't mind being black. I'm black out loud. It's more than the people that they are, it's the condition that they represent.

Young bloods can't spell but they could rock you in PlayStation...

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.

To me, playing an instrument and singing, all of these different things are just as natural to me as rhyming.

What I take from writers I like is their economy - the ability to use language to very effective ends. The ability to have somebody read something and see it, or for somebody to paint an entire landscape of visual imagery with just sheets of words - that's magical.

I think hip-hop is actually one of the most challenging things that's happened in music in a long time. The people who are in charge of what people see or hear are afraid. What you hear on top 40 or what you see on BET or MTV is not a fair representation of what is really going on...

Restlessness is my nemesis. It's hard to just chill and sit still.