I'm a real dude from a real place and I never express myself through social sites. I don't feed into it, man. That's not real life.

It was special with me being from Memphis and knowing the history of the venue, knowing all of the artists who performed in the Orpheum before me. Even having the idea to approach it was ambitious on my part, but I thought they would turn me down at first.

Keeping my family out of prison best I can. That is success to me. I created that without selling records.

I really wanna work with Kanye West. He's one of the few people I haven't got to work with yet that I really wanted to.

I was blessed with the talent. God gave me the gift to put words together and make popular songs.

Being independent is more of a mind state more than anything else. A lot of people don't understand that being an independent artist means being hands on with your career in every aspect - not being afraid to spend your own money and invest time in yourself. Although I'm affiliated with a major label, I still wake up every day with an independent mindset.

I heard Russell Simmons say that, 'people have million dollar dreams with a minimum wage work ethic.' Basically, everybody wanna be rich but don't nobody wanna work for it.