After 2001, everyone in the Soulquarians blew up, which wasn't expected. We all got the success, and then everybody froze.

It's a funny word, persistence. It means not giving up, but it also means just passing on through time.

I've always been a lover of hoodies. I'm a guy that travels a lot. I'm a guy that spends a lot of time on a cold air-conditioned tour bus. I'm a guy that likes to watch movies in peace. I'm a guy that likes to travel in the airport in peace.

Part of me would just like to relax and have one job that pays me the amount I need to survive. And another part of me wants the creativity that comes out of struggle and frustration and fear. It's a never-ending cycle, which must be how I want it, on some level.

All we sell is the Greatest feeling on Earth

I think all of this—The Roots and DJing included—was meant to prepare me for The Tonight Show.

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.