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.

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.

As an artist, it's so important to create music that puts a chill through your body or does something to make you feel good. I think my album has a little bit of everything in it and that's important to me.

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

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.

Sometimes you can make a substantial amount of money and automatically think that you've made it, that you did everything you wanted to do. Some people just stop.

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.