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I had always been a fan of Nas, but I never met him. This is the one guy in the industry who's, like, the phantom rapper.

Nas always been my favorite rapper, but 50 Cent, he changed my way of thinking about music 'cause he was so detailed in his music, I knew that wasn't lying. I never felt Tupac that way; I never felt Biggie that way. I love Nas music, but I never felt and believed like, 'This is for real.' 'Cause I grew up that gangsta lifestyle.

I didn't get into making music for the fame aspect. There are people who do desire that.

What's successful is when you are good at what you aim to do. And I don't think that Nas has aimed to do anything that he hasn't done. So he is a good businessman.

A lot of people these days are not music lovers - they just want to be famous which is a very different thing to what I grew up believing in.

Someone like Russell Crowe is questioned for his passion for music, and whatever he does, music is just in his heart and soul. All he wants to do is music.

The tricky thing is music is supposed to be very mysterious; the way it's made is mysterious. Then people like to get upset with the music business.

Man, I listened Nas and B.I.G growing up. I listened to both of them when I was younger for sure.

Today, music is great for entertainment, but it is lacking soul; it's lacking substance, and it's difficult to find good stuff. There are too many corporate interests. It's not about the actual music because it's about the corporation, and music just becomes part of a package.

A lot of very popular mainstream artists are products of record companies and marketing companies, and any time anyone can stand outside of that, that's interesting.