When I made Illmatic, I was trying to make the perfect album. It comes from the days of Wild Style. I was trying to make you experience my life. I wanted you to look at hip-hop differently. I wanted you to feel that hip-hop was changing and becoming something more real.

I don't have time for the news clippings. I got my own mission.

You ni**az get me sick, wannabe soundin like you know my arithmetic... but we don't sound alike

I'm never gonna die, never heard of death, energy can never be destroyed only the flesh.

I wanted to say what wasn't being said. I wanted to give people a real story. I wanted people to know people like me exist in the world.

Hip hop started in NY so it's important that New Yorkers realise that to talk about NY music and its sound should not be a small-minded conversation. Music is supposed to evolve. It's supposed to be going through changes, it's not supposed to sound exactly the same as what it did when it started. NY hip hop has to be allowed to move on and grow and expand.

Working with great people makes you great; you learn a lot and it also gives you the experience and confidence to move on with your own career.