I turned a lot of people in white America - and not just white America, but middle-class America - into hip-hoppers, you know?

I do a lot of TV stuff, but I also turn a lot down - it's got to be an adventure.

The most valuable lesson I've ever learned in my life is that life is about family and friends, not about material things or any of that. It's about enjoying your life. If you have no family, no friends to enjoy it with, it don't matter how much you have, how much success you have, how much fame you have, how much money you have, it doesn't matter.

This was totally influenced by me and the direction that I am writing about and the stuff that I am writing about. There is just no way that you can be as intense as what I have been through in my life over a drum beat machine, sample, or loop; it's just not going to happen.

If you grew up in my generation, you're going to be influenced by Run DMC, the Beastie Boys and also listen to Metallica - it wasn't segregated anymore.

I have been known to hang out and party back in the day. I had a weekend that lasted a few years.

Concerts every night, autograph signings, endorsements, and so on. That's not what real life is about.