Rap was slowly becoming one of my hustles, but it wasn't my main hustle. But I come from a family of hustlers, so once I figured the hustle out and mastered it, I took it to my brothers like... "we can flip this just like we flip anything else"... and they were with it but also sort of slow to come all the way on board.

Speaking for myself, my first priority is to take care of my family. That's first and foremost.

With each project, whether it's an album or a mixtape, I try to learn more in the process.

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.

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.

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.

The first CD said exactly what it was. I was just in the streets hustling. I come from a family of hustlers.