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In the black culture, certain kids are given nicknames that they roll with forever; the nicknames outweigh their real names. I'm one of those scenarios.

The Latinos were doing the five-name thing long before celebrities made it cool. We've been doing things like Antonio Ricardo Luis Raoul Hector Rivera for a while now.

Sometimes a nickname is used instead of the real name. But a nickname may offend either the one named or the parents who gave the name.

Gangs have evolved. The stereotypical gang member covered in tattoos and wearing colors does not really exist any more. There's this fear that it could be any kid, but by any kid, that means any Latino kid.

I have been in rooms with people arguing over a character that's not really fleshed out: that, just because the surname is Latino, that automatically means you have an accent.

It's not the name that makes the player. It's the player.

'Gangsta rap' is a derogatory label.

I named it that because more or less each person from the band used to play in other bands and when we left respective bands other members from those bands all sort of changed round. It was a big sort of move thing. I got it from that, I suppose.

Who gave it that title, gangsta rap? It's reality rap. It's about what's really going on.

African-Americans assume I'm named after the notorious Soledad prison or Mount Soledad in California. Latinos want to know if I'm lonely. That doesn't fit, because I grew up with five siblings, and I have four kids of my own, so I'm not lonely at all, though I do often seek solitude, the actual meaning of my name.