You have to understand the vehicle, the form that allows you to do what you do, and why that is.

The battle thing is very important in hip-hop, but at the same time, I want to sit down and have a beer and listen to Rakim.

New York City gritty committee pity the fool that act shitty in the midst of the calm, the witty.

When new artists come out and they're not being cosigned or some company doesn't have a stake in it, or someone's not getting paid under the table to produce the whole record or bring it to video, the artist really suffers.

His momma said, Donovan why are you, on the corner of linden and guy R. Brewer?

There's a need for pop. There's a need for radio. There's also a need to understand the brilliance and the depth of jazz and soul - and what hip-hop can be at its most brilliant and what hip-hop can be at its most simplistic.

Unless somebody who's already eleven thousand times platinum is like, "We're ushering this project in," it's not really gonna pop commercially.