I have a lot of those 'Forrest Gump,' I-was-there moments.

Half the time, my job is basically to talk people off the ledge. It's more psychological than just me picking up some sticks and counting, "1, 2, 3, 4."

For anyone that's ever had a musical breakthrough in their career, it's always followed by the departure period right after.

Hip-hop is an instant gratification, winners and losers circle, and often those who are losing give up after three or four, five years.

According to my parents, I just started drumming when I was two. I traveled with them from five to seven on the road, playing percussion. Between 8 and 12, my dad sort of prepared me by teaching me every aspect of road life.

Reagan's neglect of the inner city is responsible for hiphop. Hiphop is created thanks to the conditions that crack set: easy money but a lot of work, the violence involved, the stories it produced. Crack helped birth hiphop.

Hip-hop is so much about character and caricature that people just see you as a character. Very rarely are you flesh and bone to people.