All I did was take my time, figure out where I made a lot of mistakes and try not to make them no more.

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.

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.

When I'm making the music, I feel like everything I throw out has to work. It counts. Because if you don't have people turning they neck all the way around to see what it is, it ain't stick on the wall.

You gotta have a schedule, you gotta have a team that's passionate about seeing you do the things you say you wanna do. When it comes to delivering this, it takes a lot of work and I can't do that on my own.

Soul music has so many great artists who put their thing down. That's important.

In order to be one of the greats, you've got to study the greats.