When I did 'Happy Birthday,' I wrote the treatment for the video before I wrote the record. And once I wrote the video, I had a clear understanding of what I wanted; I created the soundtrack to that video.
As we grow, we learn to handle situations differently than we normally would.
I personally think J-Cole is a better rapper than me; that's how I feel.
I've always felt misunderstood. Growing up, it's been my word against the teachers' or my parents' word, and nobody would ever listen to me.
I always struggled with the idea of forgiving my enemies.
I can't make everybody happy.
Nobody is really going to bring my vision to life like the way that I am. Before I was doing my own music videos, it was not really my vision.
I'm not trying to make everything this fantasy world about how I'm living this lavish life that I'm not really living.
I think everybody's gone through some racist moment in their life.
Eminem has been someone that I've always considered the greatest ever, to ever do it. You know what I mean? In every aspect, the storytelling abilities, lyrical ability, honesty. You can hear it in my music that I'm heavily influenced by that.
I stopped watching sports because I didn't want to watch someone running up and down the field making millions and I'm not doing anything about it. That methodology made me go harder and take control of my career.
I think Lil Uzi is dope. Future is dope. I love Young Thug. I'm a huge Young Thug fan.
A lot of artists are afraid to be themselves and afraid to tell people what it really is.
Honestly, I started playing the pause game right after the 2015 BET Hip Hop Awards cypher. That's around when pauses really started.
My videos are meant to make people look at themselves at the end of the day. They all have a message.
I have been making music since I was a kid. I have written music since I was, like, seven or eight. I was in the studio at 9, 10. So I've had a lot of practice over a lot of years.
I began seeing certain things happen in my life and other people's lives and getting inspired by it and writing about it. And that's where you get 'Happy Birthday' from and 'Ross Capicchioni' from or you even get 'I'm Sorry' from.
I was born in the studio. I knew I loved music. I found my niche at, like, seven or eight. That's when I knew I wanted to rap.
I've always tried to stay away from doing remixes to songs that were popular, because too many people do that. But that's something the fans want to hear, me over those type of beats. So I do it for them.
I'm not a mumble rapper.
