You know the things I went through as a youngster, coming into the business, all the good, the bad and the ugly that came. I'd had a rough life. I grew up single parent. My mom, she was like a father to me.

The better you get, the more your legacy shines. I always just try to go hard. If you don't want do it for real, don't do it at all.

In the early 2000s, I was going through a lot. I didn't have my head screwed on right. Where I was at as a man, I was still growing up.

Before I think we was emcees, we was more or less narrators too. Because if you look at the early '80s hip hop, it was so much creativity goin' on with artists like then, like Slick Rick, then you had Rakim, and you had these different kind of artists back then. And we was a marble cake of all these artists. So I didn't have a problem with writin' stories because I felt like that was somethin' I loved to do. Even to this day, I really consider myself an entertainer-slash-narrator. I like to talk about stuff that goes on.

You know, I'm a product of my environment, gettin' into everything you know a kid my age would get into, a lot of negativity was surroundin' me. And we came, sat up and had a discussion about makin' a record, I think I was more or less overwhelmed with just that fact.

I love the energy that comes when I get on the mic. It keeps me creative and I love to hear what the fans want, what they love or hate about it.

A star's the work - the work ethic you put into the business, and the people you excite. We only wanted to excite only a few people at that time, which was some o' the emcees that was hot that was in the game.