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.

If the truth is told, the youth can grow.

For my hustlers, here's some motivation: He who has begun is half done.

I never brag, how real i keep it, cause thats the best secret.

Hip-hop ain't died because of the South, that's retarded. When I named the album originally, I thought I bit off more than I could chew but you'd be an idiot to think I'm talking about how the South killed hip-hop or how New York isn't where it should be or where it once was. It was like, "Damn, I need to explain this?" But I thought, "Nah, the proof is right there. We should know what it is." I expect the hip-hop audience to be avant garde. I want them to be where I'm at or beyond where I'm at.

I like the way hip-hop is now. It's grown up enough so that it can get involved with politics if it feels like it.

You are who you associate with. Look around at your five closest friends and that's who you are. If you don't want to be that person, you know what you gotta do.