My earliest memories of rap music was mixed with my earliest memories of reggae music. They were big sounds around the way, heavy bass lines, strong messages, definitely.

Mostly every form of American music is dead. It's been dead. R&B isn't really good. You got a handful of great guys - Ne-Yo, R. Kelly, Usher. You have a handful of great female artists. But for the most part the music world's changing and change is good. You have to make adjustments if you want to survive in that world. You start to thinking about creative moments - bliss. When everything was all good. You realize that in comparison to the way hip-hop started off, where we should be at right now is not there.

I've been lucky enough to reach a place where I can speak what's in my heart, and people know that it comes from a real place; I don't have to worry about doing what someone's not doing - I can do me.

Don't ever give up on yourself. Keep pushing because the change of guards is what life's all about. [...] You've always got to stick with whatever you're into because you're day is going to come. You're day is destined. If you walk away from that, whether it be from fear or whether you're just giving up. [...] The greatest sin is fear and giving up.

Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined

Respect all fear none my pride is everything

I used to keep a dictionary and work with it and then I realized there are more words that exist in the English language than there are in this dictionary.