I was probably just graduating high school, maybe still in high school. When I was still in high school, maybe the last two years, I was rapping but I wasn't telling anybody. When I signed my deal people didn't know it was the same Ryan Montgomery from Oak Park High School, because I used to play basketball and I used to fight. Like I'd bring boxing gloves to school. So when they found out, it was, "You mean Ryan who be boxing?" or, "Ryan who be hopping up at the park?" So I was known as that guy.

I've never really been one to stop and smell the roses.

Just take it a day at a time. If you think, "I'm never drinking again in my life," you're setting yourself up for failure. But if you just think, "I'm not drinking today," then get through that day and just stay consistent. Consistency is basically the root to everything; it's the root to all success. Consistency is key.

It's just an inspiring journey in itself to stop drinking this late in my career after abusing alcohol and to have this kind of success so late when usually people give you like this window of success time.

Hip-hop culture itself has completely consumed everything involved in entertainment. When you think about basketball like the way those guys dress; I don't know if you notice but people care about how you dress these days.

I feel like I'm at a point in my career where I'm looking for something else to sink my teeth into that's interesting to me, that I can do that I can feel like I'm turning another corner.

I feel think the next logical step is acting, which I think is cool but I never got the acting bug. I never looked at a movie and thought "I wanna act," but after seeing that play I thought, "I wanna write a movie, and I wanna write a play." I will write a movie and I will write a play.