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In the beginning it was definitely Drake, Kanye and Lil Wayne - those were my influences. But having worked with all those three individually, I'm now appreciating my own individuality.
I'm into a lot of music, definitely a lot of rap. 'Dedication 4', the Lil' Wayne album. Actually, I've been getting into some Swedish house music; the beat just keeps me going a little bit.
When I was little I definitely listened to a lot of DMX and 50 Cent. Those were probably the two main rappers I was listening to when I was young, but my favorite rapper has always been Lil Wayne.
I do have what I believe to be a two-CD, authentic, 'Carter V' final product mixed down. Nobody knows what 'Tha Carter V' is. In fact, nobody can say until Lil Wayne says, 'This is 'Tha Carter V.''
I live in Atlanta because Ludacris lives in Atlanta. And because T.I. lives in Atlanta and because Lil Wayne comes to Atlanta to hang out all the time and because Rick Ross' engineers are in Atlanta.
I rap on 'Front Porch Junkies' and 'Whatcha Got in that Cup.' I try to channel my inner Lil Wayne and Drake. It's fun to be able to freestyle over a country melody and say country words over a rap song.
I've worked with Lil Wayne and Wiz, but I'd like to work with Snoop next. I love 'Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss' and 'Doggystyle' and pretty much anything he puts out. And Ice Cube - like, all the legends.
I've got a superstar like Usher singing bachata, a tune featuring Lil Wayne. I'm offering people more than just bachata. That captures a new audience that would listen to bachata because Usher is singing.
I have periods where I listen to regular rap, Jay-Z, Eminem and Lil Wayne. The next day I might have some Christian alternative music. The next day I have on some dance music. It all varies what I listen to.
My goal the whole time has been for people to see me as a stand-alone artist. I came out with Young Money, the biggest hip-hop label in the world at the time. And then it was, 'How do I branch away from Lil Wayne?'
The artists that we grew up listening to was also independent like Master P, like Birdman and Lil Wayne. Those are the people that we wanted to model ourselves after. Throwing on the Cartier frames, the army-style fatigue jackets.
My first 'SNL' episode was with Michael Phelps and Lil Wayne. And if you go back and watch the monologue - it was supposed to feature Barack Obama, but we couldn't get him - it was with William Shatner. But if you watch it, Guy Fieri is sitting in the front row.
I was listening to Ministry and Garth Brooks and Charlie Pride and Wynton Marsalis, and then I would listen to Juvenile or Lil Wayne. It's just that I'm a big fan of music. I'm a student of music. And I just want to learn and keep enhancing my education about the music.
You've got different people that have different views of New Orleans. When you say 'New Orleans,' you have people who just think of the Neville Brothers. You've got people that think of Louis Armstrong. You say 'New Orleans,' and you've got people that think of Lil' Wayne.
When I was still back in Cameroon, because I didn't know English, I used to listen to French rap all the time and then a little bit of American hip-hop. And then, when I got to the States, that's when I really got into all those guys - Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, all those guys.
On the radio there's only a certain amount of artists: Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kanye, T-Pain, Lil Wayne, T.I., Mary J Blige, Alicia Keys. Other artists are achieving things that are really special, they have a hard time getting people's attention. Music has been just a little bit lacklustre.
Before, I used to just make songs all day and now, with so much business and other things that I have in my personal life, I don't have time to sit around and make songs like I used to. I wish I did. I wish I could practice on my craft all day and just be in the studio like I feel Lil Wayne does.
My dad and uncles listened to a lot of rap. My dad is a big fan of LL Cool J. Driving in the car with him, we'd listen to Jay-Z and Nas. My sister listened to a lot of No Limit, so I listened to Master P. and Cash Money - Lil Wayne and Juvenile. They had jewelry and nice cars. I was drawn to them.
This is going to sound ridiculous, but I read in an interview with Lil Wayne that he recorded a mixtape of something like 50 straight minutes of him rapping all of his material because he felt like he could never move on to the next phase of his musical exploration if he didn't get it down on tape.
Nobody talks about how Puffy went to Howard University or about Lil Wayne attending the University of Houston. All the young kids know is what they see on the videos. They don't realize that these guys have taken managerial and business courses, and know how to brand and how to market themselves. They're very smart.
I would love to do something with many artists, you know: Fantasia, Cardi B, Lil Wayne, J.Lo, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson. There's so many of them! All of them are iconic in their own way and to collaborate with any of those artists of that magnitude would be such an honor for me because I grew up listening to them and I love their music.