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I like good music, whichever lane it comes out of. As long as it's dope, that is all that matters with me.
I don't really know what a debut album is no more. As long as you got music on the streets, you've debuted.
Gary is a really impoverished town; it's in industrial decay. There's low employment and things of that nature.
Sports is one of the keys to my life. It definitely kept me out of a lot of trouble and gave me a lot of discipline.
Everything don't work out for the best. You have to use a lot of those things as lessons in order to build yourself up.
When you go to places like Gary and Detroit, you see the economic problem in this country and who it's really affecting.
I just want to put my stamp on all kinds of music. Everything I do is going to be gangsta rap, street-based, street-oriented.
Back when I was younger, Very ambitious, but often blinded by my hunger. Some say I dream too big, And my dream gon' take me under.
Me separating from CTE - I'm extremely happy about that because a lot of guys wrote me off, Jeezy included. He really wrote me off.
I study my competition for at least an hour a day. I get on the internet, look at what they doing, then I look at ways to defeat them.
I'd be a liar if I didn't say I learned things from Jeezy. Hell yeah, I took some things, some pluses and some minuses, do's and don'ts.
I don't think you can be a good musician if you just listen to rap, or just the [type of music] you do. You gotta be open to other ideas.
I'm from Gary, Indiana, and everybody's damn near at the poverty level. It's a rough city to grow up in, and it's a modern-day ghost town.
I'm like LeBron, man. I'm like a smaller LeBron. That's why I'm not in the NBA. If I had about five, six more inches, I'd be in the league.
You've got a lot of Tupac clones, but I don't think I'm one of them. I just think I give people a little piece of the feeling he gave them.
There's some dudes that did Gangsta Grillz tapes who probably weren't worthy of it - their label just put up the bread, or they did a favor.
Everything I do is going to be gangsta rap, street based, street oriented... I'm from Gary, Indiana, and everybody's damn near at the poverty level.
I've been interested in basketball since I was a little kid - like, 3. The Bulls were my team. If you grew up in Gary, the Bulls were everybody's team.
I'm so hands-on and involved in my own music that I feel like if I put the same effort into another artist, then I can definitely cultivate something great.
I always want everything I do to be somewhat cinematic. I don't want to be the rapper that'll just post up and shoot a video anywhere with no real meaning to it.
You have to evolve and change but you're always gonna get that street edge out of my music regardless. That's who I am. That's in me and that ain't gon' never go away.
After I got dropped by Interscope, I knew in my heart that I had to fight back some way or not rap at all. I just took it upon myself to get myself where I needed to be.
I'm cool with doing shows with 2,000 people. I don't have to rap in a stadium. As long as I can provide for my family and my art and live comfortably and live well, then I'm good.
Tupac is definitely an icon. There'll never be another Tupac, so I'm not gonna ever, ever try to fill those shoes. I'm just gonna stay in my lane and be the best me that I can be.
I'm not trying to act like I'm Superman or better than anybody else in the game. I'm just telling my story, showing my strengths and weaknesses - as a human, as a person, as a man.
Nobody else was saying what he said on air, and sometimes he pushed the envelope when he said the newest Jay Z line with a Michael Jordan highlight. But Stuart Scott was an artist.
This is the land of getting over. The land of second or even third chances; the land of doing whatever you have to do by any means necessary in order to fulfill the American Dream.
When I first came in the game, I had a bunch of homies that rapped that was hanging around me just because I was getting the rap attention, and they felt they could feed off of that.
I feel like with a lot of Madlib's beats, they are made for storytelling. I feel like when I'm working on stuff with him, I can really get into the storytelling aspect mode of my flow.
I wanted to be a gangsta from birth, not because of the music but moreso what I was seeing, what my uncles were doing. I was just fascinated with the street lifestyle from a young age.
He's been my number one influence. If you say Tupac didn't influence you, then you don't really need to be rapping because nobody evokes that kind of emotion on a track like Tupac does.
Every project might only sell like 30 to 50,000, but I mean, I'm getting seven, eight dollars every CD. I make more money per record than an artist on a major label - I can definitely say that.
I don't have to rap in a stadium. As long as I can provide for my family and my art, and live comfortably and live well, then I'm good. And with my talent level and my skill level, I'll get there.
I'm a real gangster rapper and I'm a rapper. I just think my music takes different directions. I don't think you can pigeon hole me in one genre. I'm probably the most versatile in the game, period.
I always knew that I would be some type of public figure, but I never knew that it would be rapping, 'cause my dad sang: I saw him deal with the ills of the music industry, just on the outside looking in.
I study my competition for at least an hour a day. I get on the Internet, I look at what they doing, and then I look at ways to defeat them. I know their mixtapes track-by-track. I know some of their lyrics.
I remember I used to go school with guys who couldn't afford notebooks, pens, paper: the necessary tools needed in order to survive in school. It's a lot of kids in Gary who are at a disadvantage without that.
I've been engulfed in sports since I was a 2-year-old; I picked up any kind of ball - a basketball, baseball, football - I just loved to play something. I loved the energy of being in arenas and watching the game on TV.
The things I rap about are 100 percent real. But at the same time, I don't rap about those things to tear my city down. I give you the reality of what it is and what I been through and how it is living in those conditions in Gary, Ind.
I just have to go against the grain. I mean, I can be objective and do what I need to do, handle my everyday living, follow directions, etc. But there's something that's always been attracted to that taboo. It's been like that since I was a child.
I'd be quiet as a mouse if I didn't have the correct feeling about my music. I feel like I'm able to talk about it and say I'm one of the best because I think I got the music to back that up. I got the live show to back that up. That's all that matters.
I look at some of my fans at my show, and a lot of them look like they're straight out of a punk rock show. They like what I'm coming across with. I had seen them same thing when I went to this Scarface show, so it lets me know that I'm on the right track.
Jeezy just recognized my grind, and I jumped on board with him to enhance it. Artistically, we're in the same mind frame. We come from very similar backgrounds - poverty. That's something that we can both relate to, something that we can convey in our music.
'Kind of Blue' is one of the best records of all time. Miles' use of space is something rap fans can definitely appreciate. Sometimes you have to let the track breathe and throw a melody in here and there. He never did too much on 'Kind of Blue.' It's the perfect vibe.
I don't like pre-written raps; I think it makes the song better if you listen to the beat first. In a sense, you have to make a marriage with the beat. I ride the beat, hear the flow of the drums, get the melody of my flow, and then from that point, it's a process of what I want to say.
My mom had me at a young age, like 20, and she was the oldest child. All her brothers were seven and 10, so I was like a younger brother more so than the oldest child. I was the younger brother to all my uncles, so they were going through their childhood and their teenage years, and I was right there.
I wasn't fully aware of the things that Madlib did musically, but my manager put me up on game. I'm not gonna act like I was a Madlib head when I wasn't. I didn't understand a lot of it at first. But it opened my mind to some things, and it's me bringing that gangster element to things that he does. It's like a perfect marriage.
I can do a whole project with Madlib and turn around and do a record with Gucci Mane. Gucci Mane, E-40, and Black Thought on the same record. I like all those rappers, so why can't I work with them in some type of capacity? It just speaks to my versatility. I don't just listen to one type of rap. I listen to all of it so I can make all of it.
Gary is a old factory town right outside Chicago. From my standpoint, my family migrated there in the '50s and '60s from Mississippi - Sardis, Mississippi - shout out to Sardis, Mississippi. My family migrated there just like a lot of black families in that area: they migrated there to get jobs, to get those factory jobs, that steel mill job.