Music is so therapeutic for me that if I can't get it out, I start feeling bad about myself - a lot of self-loathing.
Be proud of who you are.
I love the attention but I don't like too much of it.
Say there's a white kid who lives in a nice home, goes to an all-white school, and is pretty much having everything handed to him on a platter - for him to pick up a rap tape is incredible to me, because what that's saying is that he's living a fantasy life of rebellion.
The emotions in a song - the anger, aggression - have got to be legitimate.
I have a slight bit of OCD, I think. I'm not walking around flipping light switches. But when I say I'm going to do something, I have to do it.
I think my first album opened a lot of doors for me to push the freedom of speech to the limit.
Yeah, I did see where the people dissing me were coming from. But, it's like, anything that happened in the past between black and white, I can't really speak on it, because I wasn't there. I don't feel like me being born the color I am makes me any less of a person.
Nothing on 'Relapse' and very little on 'Recovery' was produced by me.
My overall look on things is a lot more mature than it used to be.
I don't even know how to speak up for myself, because I don't really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice. And if you're always the new kid, you never get a chance to adapt, so your confidence is just zilch.
Nobody likes to fail. I want to succeed in everything I do, which isn't much. But the things that I'm really passionate about, if I fail at those, if I'm not successful, what do I have?
My thing is this; if I'm sick enough to think it, then I'm sick enough to say it.
Five or six songs leaked from the original version of 'Encore.' So I had to go in and make new songs to replace them.
I want to solidify as an artist and show that as I grow as a person and make mistakes and learn from them, I'm going to grow artistically.
Honestly, I'd love to be remembered as one of the best to ever pick up a mic, but if I'm doing my part to lessen some racial tension I feel good about what I'm doing.
If people take anything from my music, it should be motivation to know that anything is possible as long as you keep working at it and don't back down.
If there's not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.
The truth is you don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed.
These times are so hard, and they're getting even harder.
The details surrounding both my marriage and subsequent filing for divorce are private, and I had hoped to keep them that way for the sake of my family.
It's kind of like a challenge to myself to be able to hear somebody else's hook and kind of interpret the words. Because my own hooks, I already know what I mean when I write them.
I don't think I've ever read poetry, ever.
A lot of my rhymes are just to get chuckles out of people. Anybody with half a brain is going to be able to tell when I'm joking and when I'm serious.
When 'Paul's Boutique' came out, I was one of the fans that didn't get it.
Anybody with a sense of humor is going to put on my album and laugh from beginning to end.
I didn't have nothin' going for me... school, home... until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.
Rap was my drug.
It creeps me out sometimes to think of the person I was. I was a terrible person. I was mean to people.
To the people I forgot, you weren't on my mind for some reason and you probably don't deserve any thanks anyway.
When you're a little kid, you don't see color, and the fact that my friends were black never crossed my mind. It never became an issue until I was a teenager and started trying to rap.
Dealing with backstabbers, there was one thing I learned. They're only powerful when you got your back turned.
It feels good to have your work respected again.
Sporadic thoughts will pop into my head and I'll have to go write something down, and the next thing you know I've written a whole song in an hour.
Touring is hard on the body.
Hip-hop is ever changing but you'll always have the pack. And you'll always have those people who are separated from the pack.
Certainly I'm not going to sit on the Internet all day and read what Sam from Iowa is saying about me. But I'm a sponge. I've always been a sponge.
Being a student of hip-hop in general, you take technical aspects from places. You may take a rhyme pattern or flow from Big Daddy Kane or Kool G Rap.
Personally, I just think rap music is the best thing out there, period. If you look at my deck in my car radio, you're always going to find a hip-hop tape; that's all I buy, that's all I live, that's all I listen to, that's all I love.
I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There's no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it.
I am who I am and I say what I think. I'm not putting a face on for the record.
Well, I'm working all the time to stay out of trouble!
I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn't, then why would you say I am.
Throughout my career, I fed off the fuel of people not being able to understand me.
Anything I've ever said, I certainly was feeling at the time.
A lot of truth is said in jest.
I don't even know how to speak up for myself, because I don't really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice.
Honestly, I never really put the mic down.
I've been running a lot, taking care of myself.
