The most important decision I've made in business? The choices of people I have around me. When I first started I brought everybody with me, my homies from the neighborhood, criminals. I just said, 'Come on everybody, we made it.' Then I had to realize we didn't make it. I made it.

You've got to always go back in time if you want to move forward.

I used to be focused on being the dopest rapper in the game, and then once that became what I was, I wanted something different, and I wanted to become the best businessman in the game. I wanted to learn how to master the business like I mastered the rap.

Drugs bring in guns. They bring in all these black-on-black crimes.

The 'American Idol' and 'X Factor' shows, they're great shows. But I think I need to make a show like that, directed straight to the hood, to the artists that don't get the attention, that don't have the money to make themselves representable.

The red carpet is a beautiful situation for people. I think everybody appreciates it and loves it and honors it. Nobody really acts a fool because they know this is a one-time thing.

I'm here to impress only one man. He don't live here with us. He's on top. So that's all I'm concerned about. My work is not for the public or for man to view or make judgment on me, I work for one person.