The key ingredient to any kind of happiness or success is to never give less than your best

Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you.

I don't believe that people create their own visions. Rather, I believe that visions are actually God's way of communicating with us.

You don't expect a 94-year-old white guy to pick "Dope," which was an awesome movie not even close to being considered by the Academy. And that's what it's all about, like, promoting people who might not otherwise get promoted and celebrating people who might not get celebrated.

Suffering will always be there. You'll always have the poor. You have to own your own progress. It is true that because of the economy and the fear factor the president [Barack Obama] is able to execute a lot of promises that it would be difficult to deliver it not for the fear factor. It's funny. He's delivering on what he promised and we call it fear.

Hip-hop is such a wide statement of culture that everyone is not the same, and it's impossible to put it into one box.

I don't fault business. If you run a corporation, your job is to maximize the return on investment for your investors. Good for you. But by the same token, we have to remember that corporations have no compassion. That's why legislation and regulations are necessary.