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

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.

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.

People don't like the music that's out now, that's on their radio stations, and they want to hear something different, but they're just the audience. You know, people will keep the TV on even if a show is on that they hate - because, unfortunately, they've been programmed to do that. [But] they are really looking for something that's gonna speak to the world that they're living in. That's what people are looking for, but they're not finding it.

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

If you're going to do Chuck Berry, you got to, you know, go all out, and the duck walk is just kind of you know, cursory. That's like standing.

Every time you ask yourself where hip-hop's going, ask yourself where you're going; how are you doing?