Honestly, you have to take care of yourself. That's probably something I have learned on the road.

Life is a beautiful struggle.

Life without knowledge is death in disguise.

I feel like your city - with hip hop in particular, because we're always beating our chest and shouting where we're from - your city is just as influential as your parents. Even the grimy, hardcore gangster rap from New York - KRS-One and Wu Tang, the stuff acknowledges it.

A true artist does not depend on radio for success. A true fan does not let radio determine what they support

So I think hip-hop is moving and is going to continue to move in the direction of rappers just being honest with themselves, whether you're talking about Common and Mos Def or Nas and 50 cent.

You make knowledge relevant to life and you make it important for children to learn things that will really relate to things going on in their lives, and not abstract.