Having a college degree gave me the opportunity to be... well-rounded. Also, the people I met at the university, most of them are still my colleagues now. People I've known for years are all in the industry together.
Fame necessarily isn't really tied to success at all. Fame is just being recognized for doing what you do, whether it's good or bad. Osama bin Laden was famous.
I usually travel with a posse. I roll deep. I travel like a rapper, but without the artillery. We don't carry guns, we carry cookies.
I understand what rappers are talking about. I think rap is less about educating people about the black community and more about making money.
I think it's way harder when you have success, 'cause people tend to not treat you the same or look at you the same because they see the success or the money you make.
Since I was a kid, I'd wake up every morning hearing a voice say, 'You're the greatest rapper ever.' I'm trying to prove that voice right.
The thing was, at a young age, my mom and my grandma always tried to keep me out of the streets as much as they could, so they put me in a private school when I was super young.
I don't feel that rap has been respected as an art form. Because people have seen rappers rap off the top of their heads, they don't think it is difficult.
I'm proud of everything I do, but I think I'm the most happy about becoming a rapper. It was my entrance into everything. That helped me get into acting.
I want to do films and have my name mentioned next to Wes Anderson and Quentin Tarantino. I don't want my name mentioned next to other rappers at all.
I had always been a fan of Nas, but I never met him. This is the one guy in the industry who's, like, the phantom rapper.
It's cool when people know you more, but I like people to treat me regular when they see me. I take pictures. I don't really be big on people looking at me.
I'm mostly concentrating now on continuing to make history in Hip-Hop, making everybody proud of me, I'm not just a rapper now, I'm in history now.
Over the years, a lot of rappers - Lil' Wayne, Ice Cube - have used my name in their songs. I'm a real touchstone of history.
When I was fifteen, I used to run around reading 'Adbusters' and dumpster diving, trying to find ways to make the U.S. government unwind into chaos through hardcore punk and metal.
I speak from the heart. Certain people follow lyricists and people that put words on a dictionary together, and this and that. I'm more of a rapper that speaks how I feel. I just tell it how it is.
People always want to feel better and be inspired. Sometimes we need it. I think the conscious rapper will always be able to live and exist.
When Elton John sang a duet with the white rapper Eminem on a Grammy telecast, rap went mainstream. Massive parental headaches followed.
I don't consider myself an A-list celebrity or a big dog, but every time I meet somebody, even rappers who've been in the game for years... they're like, 'Man, I'm trying to get on your level.'
I remember rap music. We used to party and dance off of it. Today it's all about a whole different angle... Rappers are going against each other, and it's more of a bragging, boasting thing.
I have a Rolex, but no diamonds. Rappers wear diamonds to compensate for a lack of fashion sense. I don't even have pierced ears - I'm not into that; it's too much.
