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If you're from a poor background, you have to work even harder. But that's what makes you who you are.

I feel like everything I do in the hip-hop world has an influence. People don't really notice what I did until somebody else does it. As far as hip-hop goes, I want to continue to make good music, and good art. I don't really follow the state of hip-hop.

I've been living. I've been doing the writing thing. I've been being the family man. I've been traveling the world. I been to, like, 18 cities last year. I've been getting my thoughts together, trying to figure out what's going on with hip-hop itself.

When I was growing up, hip-hop was still a pretty specialised thing.

I grew up in Chicago, so hip-hop has always been a part of my life.

The main reason I wanted to be successful was to get out of the ghetto. My parents helped direct my path.

You'll be fooled if you only get your hip-hop from the mainstream, you know. The things that move people are not just found in the mainstream cultures. And when we talk about hip-hop in general, hip-hop's basically preoccupied with life.

Growing up in the ghetto is pretty hard. It's poverty; it's frustration.

We used to talk about wanting to get some money, but that's when hip-hop was based on your dreams and your fantasy. The whole thing now is the dreams and fantasies were achieved, and you don't want to make it the focal point. You can't keep beating that dead horse.

My upbringing was middle-class but my parents' families were both working-class so I had this odd combination of working-class background but in a privileged position.