I can't force the direction that it's going to go without actually taking the time to make sure it's a great, great quality product. Whether that's for apparel, or whatever the case may be.

All I'm about is just the pen.

Today I feel like it's about people just looking fresh and their records aren't fresh.

Coming up, you [got new] sneakers and you had to run outside to make sure everyone saw. It was on display. That's just part of Hip Hop culture, part of the competitive spirit of Hip Hop. This is not new, I don't believe it's new.

The thing that I realize about fashion now, fashion and music, now versus back then is that you had to have fresh records and be fresh.

I try to make Play Cloths really representative of me and my designers they look at my evolution as an artist and in fashion and they [zero] in to different details. I come into the office some days and they're like, 'What are those?" [I say,] "[These] are Philip Lim...[I'll] have on Philip Lim sweats and they go and put their spin on it.

The passion for sneakers has been there since day one, but I never held onto them. I never shrunkwrap them. It's always been about getting it, buying it, wearing it, showing it and moving on to the next one.