God is my spiritual guide. Half the music I come up with I really don't know where it comes from.

When I first starting making beats, I didn't know samples were being used in any beats. I had no idea where producers were getting the real string sounds or the voices on their tracks. I knew nothing about loops or sampling off of records. So, by me knowing nothing about this it made me concentrate on my chords on the keyboard.

I think at the end of the day you can do both: make money and stay true to yourself. But a lot of young people look for that fame that some of these huge artists that they see on TV have, not knowing they can do what some of these underground artist are doing which is not selling their souls for a buck.

I grew up in the church not being able to listen to anything but gospel. So, while [other] people grew up with their parents listening to Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin, I never knew they existed until I was able to listen to what I wanted to.

You have the rap industry trying to stay above water by giving the people what they want, but then you have the people who are partaking in it and seeing it and they want what they think these artist have.

It's a beautiful thing to build your own fan base and pay the bills knowing that you're staying true to your music at the end of the day. I look at life like this, the sky's the limit!

I grew up listening to Commission, Kirk Franklin and Hezekiah Walker. If I was found listening to any rap, my pops would throw them out, or crush the CDs and tapes - literally.