When we understand that we are a human race, what affects you affects me, what affects her affects you and so on and so on, then we'll look at this thing [HIV/AIDS] for what it really is. It's a disease that's out to kill all of us. What will make it continue is our prejudices, our ideas about it, and the fact that we don't look at ourselves as one giant community.

When you're rapping, you do have to perform to a certain degree, but not every rapper is necessarily a gifted actor.

You have to stand for what you believe in and sometimes you have to stand alone.

Church was a requirement, there was no choice in the matter, so was vacation bible school. Gospel has been in me since I was a kid.

I feel very positive about Newark's future, but I know we need a lot of help. I think that starts with the education of our kids and making the streets safer.

I lost relatives to AIDS, a couple of my closest cousins. I lost friends to AIDS, high-school friends who never even made it to their 21st birthdays in the '80s. When it's that close to you, you can't really deny it, and you can't run from it.

I never pictured myself as just a rapper; I always wanted to act and do whatever else I could do. I always felt like I could do a lot of different things.