My accomplishment has helped millions of kids see that they can come from a poor family and go somewhere, make something out of themselves. Ive been doing it for seven years professionally.

You might see a female, and she triggers something, or you see an old lady walking down the street, she triggers something. You go to Africa, you see the vibes, that triggers something.

Rap records don't make you feel good no more. Six months after release, it can't come back as a classic

If I can't take five years out to serve my country as president, then everything I've been singing about, like equal rights, doesn't mean anything.

I was looking for Quincy Jones, that's who I was obsessed with. Watching Mike [Jackson], I always knew that I had to be a showman on stage, because when people come to you live you always want them to come back. You gotta give them something to remember.

No matter how far you go, if you can't go back to the essence, you're not sayin' nothin'. The essence for me is hip-hop. But the hip-hop community I came up in isn't a loyal community.

Ever since I was a little kid, there used to be the Carnival that used to pass.