Hip-hop has taken a lot of different routes throughout the years, man. I've been around since 1986.
People always tell me that they grew up with me - like I'm their brother or uncle or some other family member. That keeps me going.
Maino is an artist that I feel walks what he talks - you can tell what he raps about and what he's been through is very similar. You've got a lot of rappers that rap about what they've heard or seen, but I think Maino is one of the rappers that has actually lived it.
There are certain things that I wish people knew - certain things that I feel I started and certain things that I'm responsible for. Sometimes you wish people knew where a certain style of rapping came from or who was the first one to say whatever.
Sometimes you can't forgive, but you try to forget.
We gotta let hip-hop grow. We gotta let it go through its different phases throughout the different places that's accepting it.
When I was in high school, the energy in hip-hop at that point was the park energy... I was just trying to develop my style at that point, and I think, when you're trying to find your style, you find yourself.
Subconsciously, Islam took over me, so it was like eighty or ninety percent of the fabric of the person I was.
We need a few more Kanyes, people that's really passionate about hip-hop and who keep it alive.
The golden age was when people were starting to understand what hip-hop was and how to use it. I was lucky to come up then. Everybody wanted to be original and have substance; it was somewhat conscious... There was an integrity that people respected.
I'm not a mainstream artist. But I've seen my kids being born; I've seen them take their first steps, I've seen them grow up and start school. That's worth more to me than any umpteen million dollars.
To know that I was being heard on the radio, it made me feel as if I was, I guess, spread across New York. It was incredible.
I love Jay-Z, I love Kanye, and I praise the way he's been able to bring more business out of the jungle.
I can't look at TV without seeing something that's been influenced by rap. Even commercials for cereal. When I was small, I was a fan of cartoon characters - now the cartoon characters are rapping!
I'm a fan of Jay-Z, from the negotiating table to the booth.
I love Kanye for that. Being a producer, making beats, and being a rapper. He does it all.
I was an athlete in college - a quarterback, a leader - so people telling me what to do doesn't work.
It's hard to have fun and make a fun album when you know that it's something that you need to say.
I'm very smart with my paper! I stopped buying things for myself a long time ago - now I just buy things for my kids or my wife.
I try to make my flow sound like a John Coltrane solo.
