Quote

I'm a huge hip-hop fan from way back in the day.

A lot of rappers don't have to go through what I had to go through as a singer. I was always in a bubble that they put me in, but I was always punching out. It was a tough line to walk.

I'm probably not as big of a hip-hop fan as people may think. I'm not up on all the artists and know all their stuff.

The more I got into my artistry, I got a bigger responsibility: the kids in Chicago, they look up to the rappers. We influence them.

As far as rap goes, I grew up in Hollis, Queens, so early influences were people like Run DMC and LL Cool J.

I just feel like, with rappers, there's so much complacency. It's like, 'Oh, I'm a rapper. I'm successful. I make money. That's all that matters.' But there's a lot of stuff going on in the world. Whether or not you're aware of it, it's happening.

I don't have a very positive attitude towards rappers.

So I think hip-hop is moving and is going to continue to move in the direction of rappers just being honest with themselves, whether you're talking about Common and Mos Def or Nas and 50 cent.

I'm obviously not a rapper, and I don't have any claims to be one, really.

I've always been jealous of rappers, because they can fit so many words into a song and tell a story with lots of details. But when you're a songwriter, you have to fit the words to the melody and you can't fit as much in. I'm just a big fan of storytelling.