I don't know if there's anything Kanye West can do that can erase his influence on me, because it's here. It's already there. He can't even reverse that himself, because it's just so ingrained in me.
The U.S. army is pretty terrible. Never join it!
I don't have a manager who's secretly on Interscope. I'm the complete opposite of an industry plant.
My first live performance was when I was in the military. I went to some bar, and they had open mics. You could just sign up and perform. Nobody cared. Nobody liked it.
The first time I ever went to Texas was on a bus with curtains draped over the windows. I just joined the military and got shipped off to basic training in San Antonio.
I'm going to shock you with the truth. I'm just going to give it to you raw, and however you take it, I'm just going to watch your reaction.
The first thing I ever put on the Internet was actually a beat tape, but the first thing I ever put on where I was rapping was called 'Generation Y,' and it was hella political.
On 'Black Ben Carson,' I had strict no melody thing. I wanted straight, raw, rugged noise music.
I don't want anyone to expect anything from me. I just want them to know that I'm gonna put 1,037% into whatever I do. If I tell you I'm gonna release a folk/reggae/country album, just know at bare minimum there's gonna be 1,010% put into it.
There's just more emotion and raw feeling in Baltimore music. It can't be copied.
So much of rap sounds the same, and that's okay, but that means some people want something that can be the complete opposite too.
Most of my experience with racism comes from living in the South.
When I first started rapping, I used to just jock Jay Z super hard. Back when I was like 14 and 15, it was, like, Jay Z, Ice Cube, and Lil Wayne.
Baltimore has the hardest work ethic out of all cities. It makes you want to work harder.
After the military, I floundered around between jobs for a while, and there was an opportunity for me to go live in Japan. I was living on the Okinawa Airport Base, off the grid, no real address.
For me, sampling is a high art. Most people don't see it that way, but it's a beautiful thing. I wouldn't know anything about music if it wasn't for samples.
I am used to making people upset and uncomfortable with my lyrical content when it comes to music.
Originally my entire goal with music was for it to be my job. When I sit down to make a beat, I wanna know that I'm gonna get paid from it, and that I can pay my bills and still have money left over to be a person.
America to me is where I grew up: in Brooklyn, around other black and Latino people who helped and loved each other. I just want to show people that America doesn't have to be this 'I'm in the NRA, blah blah blah' type of place.
I don't think rappers have a responsibility, but for me, I gotta say something. I can't just look at injustice and keep quiet.
