I want to sound like an instrument. I want my voice and my words to marry the beat. I go with the rhythm of it and the words start to come to my mind and those words could be based on things that's been on my mind for the past year, the past month, the past week, whatever; I write it.

With age comes common sense and wisdom.

The flaws, the mistakes I make - that's the real me.

My first record - it was 1991. I was 16 years old. My first album came out when I was 20. So, I've been here that long and I still have the passion to do it.

I want to hear the artist. I want to hear them give me something that I can relate to, other than the fact that everything's about bragging.

I want you to know who I am: what the streets taste like, feel like, smell like. What the cops talk like, walk like, think like. What crackheads do - I wanted you to smell it, feel it. It was important to me that I told the story that way because I thought that it wouldn't be told if I didn't tell it.

I think more people want to be rappers than anything else.

I'm capable of anything, my imagination can give me wings

If I made an album just to sell you a story about how I'm the man, it really doesn't show any human side to me. It's good to talk about what's real and what's relevant.

It's foul what this money could do, cash corrupts the loyal.